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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.
Mark Hertsgaard, Executive Director of Covering Climate Now - The Nation
Stephan: In the American oligarchy, the rich can buy justice to suit their needs, or avoid having to be held responsible for the most heinous crimes. Look at Donald Rumsfeld, a man responsible for mass death in multiple countries who died today without ever being held truly accountable for what he had done. Of consider another Donald, Donald Trump. And then there are entire industries who simply buy the kind of governance that suits them. History will see climate change, I believe, as a crime against humanity that was completely avoidable.
Firefighting vessels attempt to extinguish the blaze aboard the supertanker Mega Borg in the Gulf of Mexico in June 1990, near Galveston, Tex. The vessel, which carried more than three times as much oil as the Exxon Valdez, burned uncontrollably for two days. Credit: Paul S. Howell / Liaison
Every person on Earth today is living in a crime scene.
This crime has been going on for decades. We see its effects in the horrific heat and wildfires unfolding this summer in the American West; in the mega-storms that were so numerous in 2020 that scientists ran out of names for them; in the global projections that sea levels are set to rise by at least 20 feet. Our only hope is to slow this inexorable ascent so our children may figure out some way to cope.
This crime threatens today’s young people most of all and calls into question the very survival of civilization. And yet the criminals responsible for this devastation are still at large. Indeed, they continue to perpetrate their crime, and even make money from it, not least because their […]
Stephan: The level of corruption in the U.S. Congress is gobsmacking, and completely shameless. Here we have an oil industry lobbyist bragging how he has 11 Senators under his control.
Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, one of the Congressional whores owned by Exxon/Mobile
While many oil companies are diversifying with natural gas, it appears ExxonMobil is going all-in battling to keep “big oil” alive and well.
“Did we aggressively fight against some of the science? Yes. Did we hide our science? Absolutely not,” said McCoy on camera. “Did we join some of these shadow groups to work against some of the early efforts? Yes, that’s true. But there’s nothing, there’s nothing illegal about that. We were looking out for our investments. We were looking out for our shareholders.”
McCoy compared his work with elected officials to fishing with ExxonMobil who supplies the “bait” before it “reels in” the official on issues like a carbon tax, electric cars, taxation and infrastructure.
Stephan: Biden is making his calculations based on his years in the Senate. But I think he is making a miscalculation. The Republican Party with which he worked during his time in the Senate is not the Republican Party of today. Biden has the opportunity to become historically significant, but only if he seeks the big program, and creates a new system based on integrity and the fostering of wellbeing. He doesn't have much time, as this Reuters report describes.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – U.S. President Joe Biden has seen an erosion in support since April, mainly from fellow Democrats, as his administration wrestles with Congress to make good on campaign promises and more Americans worry about an uneven economic recovery, Reuters/Ipsos polling shows.
A June 11-17 national opinion poll shows Biden is still more popular than his Republican predecessor Donald Trump ever was: 55% of adults approve of Biden’s performance in office and 65% like his response to the coronavirus pandemic. At this point four years ago, about 36% of adults approved of Trump’s job performance.
However, a growing number of Americans disapprove of Biden’s leadership on the economy, gun violence and taxation, with the biggest decline coming within Biden’s Democratic Party https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-BIDEN/POLL/yxmvjzlmkvr, especially those under the age of 40, non-white Democrats or those who do not have a college degree.
The economy has replaced healthcare and disease as a top concern, with nearly a quarter of adults who were polled calling it the most important problem. A majority of Americans are worried about rising living costs, and the […]
Stephan: The growing racism in the United States is the reaction to our becoming a majority-minority nation, concurrently with the diminishing power of the White supremacist cult called evangelical Christianity. During the course of the pandemic church attendance already declining particularly amongst the young, has even more dramatically fallen off. Then there is the growing trend of gender equality. It should surprise no one that accompanying all this is a rise in antisemitism, which is increasing significantly. All of this, start to finish, is a manifestation of White fear on the part of insecure Whites who are afraid they cannot compete on a level playing field.
American antisemite cretins in Charlottesville, Virginia
Personal hate and global movements online
Both Jassey and Flayton explain their own positions — their culture, their faith, their support for Israel but not all the actions of its governments — with great nuance.But nuance disappears online, where college students spend so much of the time, and the vitriol there has been particularly harsh.”I’m a white supremacist. I’m a Nazi. I kill babies. I’m a genocide apologist. I am a racist. I support ethnic cleansing and colonialism,” Flayton says, quoting some of the abuse hurled at him. “I get more death threats than my parents would probably like to know about.”Blake Flayton says those with mass followings on social media should take extra care not to fan the flames of Jewish hate, even if they say their speech is intended to be political […]
Stephan: The United States economy shows we are the richest nation in the world, but that is highly misleading. We have the worst wealth inequality amongst the developed nations of the world. Forty percent of American families could not write a $400 check without significant stress. Six percent, 20 million, Americans don't even have enough to eat, as this article details. And I could go on and on listing these awful social outcome realities. I will just add one more, average income by nation; we're not the leaders of even close; we're number 6.
The countries with the highest median incomes are:
Luxembourg - $52,493
Norway - $51,489
Sweden - $50,514
Australia- $46,555
Denmark - $44,360
United States - $43,585
Canada - $41,280
South Korea - $40,861
Kuwait - $40,854
Netherlands - $39,584
The ongoing problem, which I see every day, is that Americans seem to be incapable of telling themselves the truth about themselves, and if you can't tell yourself the truth about yourself, how can you fix the problems?
A Mama-Tee refrigerator in Philadelphia. Credit: Heather Long/The Washington Post
PHILADELPHIA — Darrell Brokenborough opened the bright yellow refrigerator that stood onthe sidewalk outside a row home at 308 N. 39th St., smiled and said, “It’s full.” He balanced on his cane so he could take a closer look at the apples, yogurt, greens, pasta, cheese and chicken inside. On the front of the fridge was written: “Free food” and “Take what you need. Leave what you don’t.”
Brokenborough grabbed several bags of apple slices to slip in his slim over-the-shoulder bag. He tried to stuff some applesauce containers in his pouch but returned the applesauce for someone else. His favorite groceries are fresh bagels and cream cheese, which weren’t there this time.
“I always recommend the fridge to my friends with kids. There’s always something healthy here,” he said, calling the free food he gets at the fridge on his way to and from a nearby medical facility a “blessing.”
Philadelphia now has more than 20 of these refrigerators sitting outside homes and restaurants, offering free food to anyone […]
Stephan: As this report says, "More than half of all renter households lost employment income between March 2020 and March of this year, causing one in five of those households to fall behind on rent. For black renter households, fully 29 percent owe past-due rent." Unless something is done we are about to see tens of thousands of families evicted and rendered homeless.
PHOENIX, ARIZONA – OCTOBER 05: Maricopa County constable Lenny McCloskey evicts an apartment resident for non-payment of rent on October 5, 2020 in Phoenix, Arizona. Thousands of court-ordered evictions continue nationwide despite a Centers for Disease Control (CDC) moratorium for renters impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. Although state and county officials say they have tried to educate the public on the protections, many renters remain unaware and fail to complete the necessary forms to remain in their homes. In many cases landlords have worked out more flexible payment plans with vulnerable tenants, although these temporary solutions have become fraught as the pandemic drags on. With millions of Americans still unemployed due to the pandemic, federal rental assistance proposals remain gridlocked in Congress. The expiry of the CDC moratorium at year’s end looms large, as renters and landlord face a potential tsunami of evictions and foreclosures nationwide. Credit: John Moore/Getty
The United States is on the precipice of a post-pandemic eviction crisis. More than half of all renter households lost employment income between March 2020 and March of this […]
Stephan: I had two readers write me this morning admonishing me "that no one would want a civil war." Sorry, but that is not correct. There are hundreds of thousands, perhaps several million, Americans apparently who would relish it. Because we have not had civil mass violence on our soil in living memory -- something that makes America unique -- such people have no concept of what civil war would create.
Civil War Advocate Credit: CNN
CNN reporter Donie O’Sullivan traveled to former President Donald Trump’s weekend rally in Ohio and spoke to some of his supporters who warned of more violence like that witnessed at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
In a CNN clip posted to his Twitter page, O’Sullivan interviewed one Trump supporter who was convinced the former president would be reinstated by August. He espoused a fictional conspiracy theory holding that the “military” already knows Trump won the 2020 election by “over 80 percent.”
“He’s coming back,” the supporter said.
“And what if that doesn’t happen?” asked O’Sullivan, pointing out that the Constitution doesn’t have a mechanism to “reinstate” a defeated president.
“We’re gonna be in a civil war,” the supporter said. “Because the militia will be taking over.”
Another man, a self-proclaimed member of the militant right-wing group the Three Percenters, wasn’t quite as definitive, but also offered warnings of violence. He said he went to the protests at the Capitol on Jan. 6, but claimed not to have joined the rioters and insurrectionists who violently stormed the building […]
Stephan: I come from a rural county in Tidewater Virginia and grew up listening to neo-confederate crap, and watching people stand whenever Dixie was played in a bar or at a party. I am sure I must have forebearers who were confederates, and Robert E. Lee's dinner table has come down to me and is in my dining room. The fascination with "the lost cause" has ebbed and flowed throughout the south all my life. It was White supremacy then, and it is White supremacy now.
Neo-confederates
Leaked membership data from the neo-Confederate Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) organization has revealed that the organization’s members include serving military officers, elected officials, public employees, and a national security expert whose CV boasts of “Department of Defense Secret Security Clearance”.
But alongside these members are others who participated in and committed acts of violence at the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and others who hold overlapping membership in violent neo-Confederate groups such as the League of the South (LoS).
The group, organized as a federation of state chapters, has recently made news for increasingly aggressive campaigns against the removal of Confederate monuments. This has included legal action against states and cities, the flying of giant Confederate battle flags near public roadways, and Confederate flag flyovers at Nascar races.
Last Monday, the Georgia division of SCV commenced legal action against the city of Decatur with the aim of restoring a Confederate memorial obelisk which was removed in June 2020, and later replaced with a statue of the late congressman and civil rights activist John Lewis.
Blake Flayton says those with mass followings on social media should take extra care not to fan the flames of Jewish hate, even if they say their speech is intended to be political […]
