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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.
Stephan: This historic transition of evangelical Christianity from a religious movement to a christofascist political cult, is one of the more notable trends in 20th century America, defined by White supremacy, male dominance, hysteria about sexuality, and fascism.
Jerry Falwell Sr, Pat Robertson, Franklin Graham and Robert Jeffress Credit: Salon/Getty
As a pastor I was always uncomfortable using God’s word to pressure people to give money to the church. It seemed like a dirty trick: Play on the fear of disappointing God by convincing people on fixed incomes to provide for my livelihood. So I never did, much to the chagrin of my board of trustees. For the past 70 years, however, evangelical leadership has used this fear of God to raise billions of dollars to fight those the evangelicals have deemed to be the enemies of God. This naturally requires a private jet, a television network, a super PAC and a con artist pastor and politician to lead the way.
The first set of enemies were of course the feminists, the pro-choice advocates and the LGBTQ community. Jerry Falwell Sr. said in 1980, “We must stand against the Equal Rights Amendment, the feminist revolution and the homosexual revolution.” From that point forward, the blueprint to effect political change for God — and to raise money for that cherished cause — was created. God’s call was clear, or so the congregations were told, and the […]
Stephan: This is why Republicans have been obsessed with stacking the Supreme Court with ideologues. What stands out about the Roberts' court is not just its political bias, but its sheer nastiness.
Farmworkers harvesting beets in Arvin, Calif. Credit: UFW Instagram
Sitting in their air-conditioned offices with stewards who serve coffee and tea on request, a majority of our Supreme Court justices have come to an awful decision. They ordered an essential class of workers into slave-like isolation—unseen, unheard and unprotected—as they toil in scorching heat harvesting crops.
The justices, exploiting a single incident, turned back the clock on farmworker rights nearly a half-century.
In an under-reported 6-3 decision, the justices drop-kicked the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975 into the trash bin. That California law gave farmworkers access to labor organizers. The court decision assures farm owners that they once again reign over their employees like plantation owners in the antebellum South, just without bullwhips.
“It seems like a return to indentured servitude,” Rev. Richard Witt, executive director of the Rural and Migrant Ministry in NewYorkState, said after the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 23 decision inCedar Point Nursery v. Hassid.
In practical terms, the ruling means that farmworkers cannot access union organizers unless they leave the farm, creating a legal barrier that […]
Stephan: Chinese buying up American farmland. Is that something you knew about? Me neither. Hadn't thought of it, and should have. Is see this as part of the American Diminution Trend. For most of the lives of most of us alive, the U.S. has been the world's single dominant power. But that is changing, climate change is going to exacerbate this process and we are going to see more and more stories like this one.
The push to drain China’s influence from the U.S. economy has reached America’s farm country, as congressional lawmakers from both parties are looking at measures to crack down on foreign purchases of prime agricultural real estate.
Pallets of sod cover part of the 230 acre Kuenzi Turf & Nursery on June 2, 2021 in Salem, Oregon. Credit: Nathan Howard/Getty
House lawmakers recently advanced legislation to that effect, warning that China’s presence in the American food system poses a national security risk. And key Senate lawmakers have already shown interest in efforts to keep American farms in American hands.
The debate over farm ownership comes amid broader efforts by Congress and the Biden administration to curb the nation’s economic reliance on China, especially in key industries like food, semiconductors and minerals deemed crucial to the supply chain. The call for tighter limits on who owns America’s farms has come from a wide range of political leaders, from former Vice President Mike Pence to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), after gaining momentum seeded in farm states.
“America cannot allow China to control our food supply,” […]
Stephan: It is my view that we need new laws to regulate social media so that lethal disinformation cannot be spewed out across those platforms. Just as you do not have freedom of speech to cry "Fire" in a crowded movie theater, so you should not be able to spread misinformation that can kill people if they follow it. How many people died as a result of following the recommendations of these 12 people.
Here is the list of the 12 disinformation spreading individuals listed by Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH). Both Robert Kennedy and Jack Kennedy must be rolling in their graves at his son's/nephew's actions and words.
Andrew Wakefield
Barbara Loe Fisher
Del Bigtree
Joseph Mercola
Kelly Brogan
Larry Cook
Mike Adams
Rashid A Buttar
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Sayer Ji Promoter
Sherri Tenpenny
Ty and Charlene Bollinger
And here is the URL to download the CCDH report:
https://252f2edd-1c8b-49f5-9bb2-cb57bb47e4ba.filesusr.com/ugd/f4d9b9_00b2ad56fe524d82b271a75e441cd06c.pdf
The vast majority of Covid-19 anti-vaccine misinformation and conspiracy theories originated from just 12 people, a report by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) cited by the White House this week found.
CCDH, a UK/US non-profit and non-governmental organization, found in March that these 12 online personalities they dubbed the “disinformation dozen” have a combined following of 59 million people across multiple social media platforms, with Facebook having the largest impact. CCDH analyzed 812,000 Facebook posts and tweets and found 65% came from the disinformation dozen. Vivek Murthy, US surgeon general, and Joe Biden focused on misinformation around vaccines this week as a driving force of the virus spreading.
On Facebook alone, the dozen are responsible for 73% of all anti-vaccine content, though the vaccines have been deemed safe and effective by the US government and its regulatory agencies. And 95% of the Covid misinformation reported on these platforms were not removed.
Among the dozen are physicians that have embraced pseudoscience, a bodybuilder, a wellness blogger, a religious zealot, and, most notably Robert F Kennedy Jr, the nephew of John F […]
Stephan: Yes, another report illustrating once again the failure of the American illness profit system. We are so corrupted by corporate greed that Americans, who don't seem to understand or realize this, think the propaganda put out by the medical corporations is accurate and that the United States has the best medical system in the world, when, in fact, the World Health Organization ranks us as 37th. And, at the same time, we are by orders of magnitude the most expensive system on earth.
In the U.S., it’s more dangerous to have a baby in 2021 than it was in 2000. Compared with other high-income countries, the U.S. ranks as one of the worst in maternal mortality, with nearly 700 deaths per year, most of which are preventable, according to a report by the Commonwealth Fund.
This crisis has a disproportionate impact on people of color: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that Black women are three times more likely to die than white women because of reasons related to pregnancy. Across the world, maternal deaths are decreasing, but in the U.S., a steady rise in maternal mortality has been building into a full-blown health crisis.
To address these challenges and identify possible solutions, several leading voices on this issue gathered in May for POLITICO’s virtual event, “POLITICO’s Health Care Innovators: Fixing America’s Maternal Health Crisis” presented by CVS Health.Video Player is loading.https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.471.1_en.html#goog_898323018PauseUnmuteCurrent Time 0:09/Duration 55:54Loaded: 0.29% ShareCaptionsFullscreen
Dr. Juliet Nevins, clinical solutions medical director with Aetna, a CVS company, called the crisis “a vicious cycle.” She said women of color enter pregnancy with higher rates of chronic diseases, such as hypertension and diabetes, […]
Stephan: I got an email from a doctor in Missouri who is a reader telling me that he and the other hospital staff have a very different view of the pandemic. "Every day now I and the others put our lives at risk, and work impossible hours to treat people who chose not to get vaccinated and are now sick with Covid, particularly this new variant. It is hard not to have some resentment at their stupidity." Then another reader sent me this article basically making the same point.
Doctor preparing for work Credit: MIshia Friedman/Getty
We are going to hand over to Dr. Ken Starnes. Ken works in emergency medicine down in Winters Bone country on the border between Missouri and Arkansas, and we have checked in with him from time to time for reports on how the pandemic is hitting the people in that particularly tough part of the country. The answer, often, was “very hard.” But now, with the Delta Variant on the loose, the answer for both Arkansas and Missouri now would be “like a freight-train pulling a bulldozer chained to a steamroller.” — Charles P. Pierce
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According to the CDC, Arkansas’s rate of new cases is up by 35 percent from last week, and 34.8 percent of the state’s population is fully vaccinated. Missouri’s new cases also are up 35 percent from last week and nearly 40 percent are fully vaccinated. If there is an epicenter of this latest outbreak, and if it’s not in this part of the country, it’s close. I’ve been texting back and forth with Dr. Starnes over the […]
Stephan: America's wealth inequality is so great that the uber-rich can build their own spacecraft, and a minimum wage worker can't afford to rent even a tiny apartment. Here is the data. Except for a small minority of Democrats, wellbeing is not a consideration in the American Congress. Only profit and power matter. I think we should be ashamed as a country at our unwillingness to address this issue.
There is now not a single state or county in the US where a minimum wage worker on a 40-hour week can afford a two-bedroom home at the fair market rent, according to a report published by the National Low Income Housing Coalition this week. In 93 percent of US counties, such full-time minimum wage workers can’t afford a one-bedroom apartment, either.
“The enduring problem of housing unaffordability requires bold investments in housing solutions that will ensure stability in the future,” said NLIHC President and CEO Diane Yentel in an emailed statement. “Without a significant federal intervention, housing will continue to be out of reach for millions of renters.”
To crunch these numbers, the NLIHC relied on a common metric for housing affordability: a home is affordable if it requires workers to pay up to 30 percent of their monthly income in rent. Using this metric, NLIHC’s report found that workers would need to earn a little less than $52,000 per year—or $24.90 per hour—to afford a modest two-bedroom home, or at least $20.40 per hour to afford a one bedroom. The […]
Aaron Blake, Senior Reporter - The Washington Post
Stephan: Do you realize that it was Trump's intention to overthrow democracy? Had he been more competent, and had different people been in certain positions it might have happened. Trump is and always has been a wannabe Fuhrer. Is everyone clear about this? Enough evidence has been presented to indict and hold a trial, and there will be more to come. It will become overwhelming. It is my opinion that Donald Trump should be tried, found guilty on the evidence, and sent to prison. The lack of accountability concerning Trump is a historic mistake, which will have long-term consequences. Congress should convene a treason trial, like Nuremberg, and all involved should be held to account.
President Donald Trump leaves the White House to visit St. John’s Church in Washington on June 1, 2020. Walking behind Trump, from left, are Attorney General William P. Barr, Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper and Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Credit: Patrick Semansky/AP
In the run-up to the 2020 election, the media covered one of the most difficult stories to write about in one of the most difficult presidential administrations it will ever cover: whether President Donald Trump might do something drastic if he lost reelection. Stories on and speculation about Trump potentially calling in the military or even engaging in an attempted coup d’etat were roundly ridiculed by Trump’s allies as the latest bit of alarmism from an anti-Trump press.
Former Trump acting defense secretary Christopher C. Miller even testified in May of this year that the media’s “irresponsible commentary” on this topic inflamed the situation ahead of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
What we’ve found out since then, though, can be understood as little else but […]
