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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.
There is a new cycle in the Covid pandemic, and yet I see almost no discussion in the media about it. We are already seeing deaths and, as this report details, “Nationally, emergency room visits for Covid increased by 15.7% in the past week. Rising hospitalization rates are now higher than last summer at this time…..Nearly 400 people died in the week ending 12 June, the last week for which full data was available” If you are in a crowded space I would wear a mask, as I intend to.
Covid is surging across the US, with levels of the virus on track to exceed last summer’s wave nationally and approaching the peak of last winter’s wave in the west, according to wastewater data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Yet vaccination and antiviral uptake, plagued by inequitable access, have remained low, and other precautions like mask-wearing are being met with increasing resistance.
“A lot of people right now are getting Covid all over the country,” said Dr Peter Chin-Hong, professor of medicine and infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco. “There are still hospitalizations, and there’s still a few hundred deaths every week in the US – and that’s a tragedy.”
The rise is being driven by a trio of variants, called Flirt because of shared mutations, that seem to be more immune-evasive and transmissible. And much of the US has been locked in heatwaves, with many Americans staying indoors to avoid the heat – which can lead to more spread of the virus.
Nationally, emergency room visits for Covid increased by 15.7% in the past week. Rising hospitalization rates are now higher than last summer at this time, although it can be difficult to make comparisons now that […]
Annie Gowen, Reporter - Microsoft Start / The Washington Post
Stephan:
Even though they must surely have access to all the social outcome data I do, the state legislature of Iowa has passed, and the governor has signed, the same remarkably stupid anti-choice laws passed in 17 other MAGAt controlled states. The result will be, as it is in all those states, that women will face degradation of their healthcare, there will be all kinds of female health problems, and OB/GYNs will leave the state. This control of women obsession is so anti-wellbeing, and yet this is what MAGAts do.
Iowa abortion ban taking effect as residents flee out of state for care. Credit: Zach Boyden-Holmes / AP
Planned Parenthood says it will continue providing abortions in Iowa but only in the very limited circumstances allowed by the state’s six-week abortion ban, which goes into effect at 8 a.m. Monday after a year of legal wrangling.
The law restricts the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy, the point when fetal cardiac activity can be detected, with the only exceptions being cases of rape, incest, a fetal abnormality “incompatible with life” or if the life of the mother is in danger. Iowa had previously permitted abortions until 22 weeks of pregnancy.
Reproductive care groups in neighboring states where the procedure remains legal are already seeing an influx of patients from Iowa. The Chicago Abortion Fund received more than 60 support requests from Iowa residents during the first three weeks of July, a 165 percent increase over previous months.
“It’s staggering even to me,” executive director Megan Jeyifo said Wednesday.
Agence France-Presse, - Raw Story / Agence France-Presse
Stephan:
Do some research, and get these products out of your life.
New research published in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives says that pesticides used for both agricultural and residential applications are an important source of PFAS contamination in the environment Credit: Kerry Sheridan / AFP
Toxic “forever chemicals” are increasingly being used in U.S. pesticides, threatening human health as they contaminate waterways and are sprayed on staple foods, a study said Wednesday.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have come under increasing scrutiny in recent years, but environmental regulations against them have mainly paid attention to sources such as industrial facilities, landfills and consumer products like certain cookware and paints.
New research published in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives says that pesticides used on crops including corn, wheat, spinach, apples and strawberries — and other sources such as insect sprays and pet flea treatment — can now be added to the list.
“The more we look, the more we find it,” co-author Alexis Temkin, a toxicologist at the nonprofit […]
I am running an article on this poll because of what it reveals about how Americans feel about democracy. “When asked whether democracy is the best system of government, 58% of all voters “strongly agreed,” while 21% reported that they “somewhat agreed.” I think this is telling us one of the most important things we can know about this election. Nearly a quarter of American voters aren’t really committed to the preservation of our democracy. I think that is horrifying, and why this election is going to change the course of America’s history one way of the other.
A new national survey by Florida Atlantic University and Mainstreet Research USA reveals that U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and former U.S. President Donald Trump are in a statistical tie in a 2024 presidential election matchup. The poll also highlights complex views on democracy among American voters.
Harris and Trump are both at 46% among all voters in the latest Florida Atlantic University Political Communication and Public Opinion Research Lab (PolCom Lab) and Mainstreet Research USA poll. Diving into key demographic groups reveals striking differences:
Harris holds a strong lead among women with 49% compared to Trump’s 42%
Among Black voters, Harris commands a significant advantage at 67%, while Trump trails at 22%
In the Hispanic demographic, Harris secures 54% support, leaving Trump with 37%.
Trump leads with 18 to 35-year-old voters, 45% to 36%
When Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is included, Harris has a 1% lead among all voters, which is within the margin of error
“While voters may be responding to the prospect of a new candidate in these results, they are also not sure what the Harris campaign messaging is,” […]
Laura Paddison, Jen Christensen, Mary Gilbert, Henry Zeris, Yukari Schrickel, Lou Robinson and Way Mullery, Reporters - CNN
Stephan:
If you read SR regularly you know that I have been telling you for years that climate change is going to render large parts of the world uninhabitable because of heat, and this will also ravage the matrix of life in Earth’s ecosystems. As you read this remember that criminal Trump and Frankenstein Vance, and the MAGAt cult are doing everything they can to keep humanity dependent on carbon energy. Why? Because the oil billionaires are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into American politics to urge the sadly ignorant American voters to keep the MAGAt cult in power. According to the best research I can track down 16% of Americans still do not believe in climate change (about 49 million people). How this can be true, given what people are experiencing everyday recently, I cannot explain but that’s the truth of where we are.
Philip Kreycik should have survived his run.
In the summer of 2021, the 37-year-old ultra-marathon runner used an app to plot a roughly 8-mile loop through Pleasanton Ridge Regional Park in California, a huge stretch of parkland threaded with trails.
On the morning of July 10, as temperatures crept into the 90s, Kreycik set off from his car, leaving his phone and water locked inside. He started at a lightning pace — eating up the first 5 miles, each one in less than six minutes.
Then things started to go wrong. GPS data from his smartwatch showed he slowed dramatically. He veered off the trail. His steps became erratic. By this time, the temperature was above 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
When Kreycik failed to show up for a family lunch, his wife contacted the police.
It took more than three weeks to find his body. An autopsy showed no sign of traumatic injuries. Police confirmed Kreycik likely experienced a medical emergency related to the heat.
The tragedy is sadly far from unique; extreme heat is turning ordinary activities deadly.
Aliya Uteuova, Environmental Justice Reorter - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan:
The American illness Profit system is unprepared and already being overwhelmed by climate change, and we are just at the beginning of this trend.
Paramedics in Phoenix, Arizona, rush a resident to the hospital during a heatwave. Credit: Bloomberg / Getty
In his 40 years in the emergency room, David Sklar can think of three moments in his career when he was terrified.
“One of them was when the Aids epidemic hit, the second was Covid, and now there’s this,” the Phoenix physician said, referring to his city’s unrelenting heat. Last month was the city’s hottest June on record, with temperatures averaging 97F (36C), and scientists say Phoenix is on track to experience its hottest summer on record this year.
“All three of these situations are sort of disasters, where we became overwhelmed by something that had really serious effects on a large part of our population.”
In recent months, Sklar and his colleagues have seen waves of patients coming into the ER with heatstroke, dehydration and even asphalt burns.
He described seeing several patients in a single shift with heatstroke. “Typically people aren’t talking at all, they’re just breathing and gasping and are in very bad shape,” he said of the most severe cases.
Look at the graph at the head of this article. Notice that the United States is the only developed democracy offering justices lifetime tenure. Biden is proposing this be changed. This is very good news from President Biden. I don’t think it will work until after the election and, then, only if Harris elected President and the Democrats get large majorities in both the House and the Senate. But I absolutely support this. However, it is only going to happen if you vote only for Democrats, and encourage your family and friends to do the same. This election is not about the usual politics. This is an election between continuing democracy or becoming a christofascist White supremacist handmaid oligarchy. Criminal Trump is saying it explicity. If you vote him into office, he is telling people, you won’t have to vote again.
Summary
Biden calls for 18-year term limit for justices
Rules would make justices refrain from political activity
Proposals unlikely to be passed by divided Congress
WASHINGTON, July 29 (Reuters) – President Joe Biden on Monday proposed sweeping changes to the U.S. Supreme Court, including term limits and a binding code of conduct for its nine justices, but opposition from Republicans in Congress means the proposals have little chance of enactment.
Biden called on Congress to pass binding and enforceable rules that would require the justices to disclose gifts, refrain from public political activity, and recuse themselves from cases in which they or their spouses have financial or other conflicts of interest. He also urged the adoption of an 18-year term limit for the justices, who currently serve life tenures.
Biden called for the revamp, as well as a constitutional amendment to eliminate broad presidential immunity recognized in a July 1 Supreme Court ruling involving former President Donald Trump, in an opinion piece published in the Washington Post.
He will speak on the issue at the presidential library of former President Lyndon B. Johnson in Austin, Texas, later […]
It seems almost every day as I do the research for SR I come across one story after another about the dysfunction of the American Illness Profit System. This one is just plain evil. Yet, do you hear anyone in either party, except Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren talking about instituting universal birthright single-payer healthcare? Do you see or hear anyone in corporate media arguing for this? You do not. The truth is MSNBC, CNN, and Fox Propaganda basically depend on the advertising of Big Pharma, one of the worse components of the the illness profit system, to keep operating.
Credit: MedPage Today
Critically injured trauma patients without insurance had a higher risk of being taken off life-saving care sooner than their insured counterparts, according to findings from a retrospective cohort study of more than 300,000 U.S. adults.
After adjustment for patient and hospital characteristics, those without insurance had significantly earlier withdrawal of life-sustaining therapy (WLST) when compared with Medicaid recipients (HR 1.53, 95% CI 1.45-1.62) or the privately insured (HR 1.57, 95% CI 1.49-1.65), reported researchers led by Graeme Hoit, MD, of the University of Toronto.
In contrast, no such difference in time to WLST was observed between the Medicaid and privately insured groups (HR 1.03, 95% CI 0.98-1.08). Unadjusted numbers showed mean times to WLST of 6.5 days in the uninsured group, 8.9 days in the Medicaid group, and 7.8 days for the privately insured group.
“Our study suggests that a patient’s ability to pay may be associated with a shift in decision-making for WLST,” the group wrote in JAMA Network Open
