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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: We are going to see more and more of this, and frankly, in this instance, I think the counties immediately adjacent to the border should be allowed to change states. The social outcome data of the Red value states is so inferior, and getting more so day by day, that this is a crazy move, but there is a large part of the U.S. population who either will not or cannot see this.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown speaks Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2020, in Portland, Ore. Brown and Oregon health officials warned Tuesday of the capacity challenges facing hospitals as COVID-19 case counts continue to spike in the state. Credit: Cathy Cheney/Pool Photo/AP)
Five eastern Oregon counties voted Tuesday to consider joining Idaho, the biggest victory to date for the movement to split off from the Democrat-controlled blue state by redrawing state lines.
— Citizens for Greater Idaho (@GreaterIdaho) May 19, 2021
Citizens for Greater Idaho said that the five rural counties — Sherman, Lake, Grant, Baker and Malheur — approved measures directing county commissioners to promote the concept of border relocation, joining two other counties, Union and Jefferson, that did so in November.
The Nov. 3 election also saw two other counties defeat the Greater Idaho proposal, but on Tuesday, all five counties with the initiatives on the ballot passed […]
Stephan: As I said in the previous comment, the social outcome data of states controlled by Republicans, compared with that of states controlled by Democrats is startilingly different. The Republican data is markedly inferior (see SR archives)
Republican South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster
Years ago, I was conducting a months-long journalistic investigation into the street violence plaguing a small community in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Doing that reporting was brutal. But a theme emerged among the moms that has never left me.
They felt shame, so much shame they forwent government help. That’s the opposite of what too many conservatives had been telling the public for decades about welfare, a narrative popularized by the welfare-queen myth conjured up by Ronald Reagan.
It illustrates the cruelty of recent decisions by a growing number of Republican governors to cut off extended unemployment benefits to working families because the benefits are supposedly so generous they discourage those on the economic margins from re-entering the workforce as the covid pandemic winds down.
Those moms had lost children to that street violence in multiple ways, often because of the violent drug game. One recounted having to identify her son’s body in the medical examiner’s office. A piece of preserved skin was unrolled in her presence. On it was a tattoo. That’s how she confirmed […]
Stephan: The Trumps saw themselves as royalty and expected you and I to support them to the level their egos were convinced they deserved. The sums coming out describing what that cost are staggering.
Former first lady Melania Trump refused to go to public events with her husband as news became public that he had an affair with Stormy Daniels in the weeks that followed her giving birth to his son. Mrs. Trump sought to go to Mar-a-Lago for a spa weekend instead of being with her husband on international visits.
The facts are part of Washington Post reporter Carol Leonnig’s new book on the lack of funding to sustain the Secret Service.
“Melania Trump reportedly was ‘blindsided’ and ‘furious’ by reports about Trump’s alleged affair with porn star Stormy Daniels, so she took an impromptu, two-day trip to Mar-a-Lago,” The Mercury News reported. “That quick trip possibly cost American taxpayers at least $64,000 in costs, from traveling on a military C-32A plane, the New York Times reported at the time.”On the Raw Story Podcast: Marcus Flowers Marjorie Taylor Green’s worst nightmare
Now that Leonnig is looking back at the costs, the dollars are stacking up. She estimates at least $600 million in Secret Service fees over the four years […]
Stephan: You have probably never heard of any of these corporations, but these 20 companies are destroying earth's matrix of life, and personally degrading your life. What to do? What can an ordinary person do to stop this environmental disaster? Stop buying as many things as you can made of plastic. Citizen power is pocketbook power.
Twenty companies are responsible for producing more than half of all the single-use plastic waste in the world, fuelling the climate crisis and creating an environmental catastrophe, new research reveals.
Among the global businesses responsible for 55% of the world’s plastic packaging waste are both state-owned and multinational corporations, including oil and gas giants and chemical companies, according to a comprehensive new analysis.Quick Guide
The Plastic Waste Makers index reveals for the first time the companies who produce the polymers that become throwaway plastic items, from face masks to plastic bags and bottles, which at the end of their short life pollute the oceans or are burned or thrown into landfill.https://interactive.guim.co.uk/charts/embed/may/2021-05-17T09:28:01/embed.html
It also reveals Australia leads a list of countries for generating the most single-use plastic waste on a per capita basis, ahead of the United States, South Korea and Britain.
Stephan: If you are a woman living in Texas I hope you realize the Trump christofascists have just legally rendered you a second-class person. You no longer have full control over your body. And just to make sure you don't the christofascists have put anyone who tries to help you exercise control over your body legally at risk. Personally, I would not live in Texas, or any of the states where citizens have given control of their lives over to the Trump cultists and I know my wife, as a woman, feels even more strongly about this than I do.
Abortion rights activists hold placards and chant outside of the U.S. Supreme Court ahead of a ruling on abortion clinic restrictions on June 27, 2016 in Washington, D.C. Credit: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty
“Abhorrent” and “unconscionable” were words used Wednesday by women’s health and rights advocates to describe the latest extreme ban on abortion care as Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law a measure that bans the procedure after six weeks and allows virtually any private citizen to attempt to penalize abortion providers in the state.
The law, which provides no exceptions for survivors or rape or incest, is set to take effect in September.
“The cruelty is so clearly the point,” tweeted NARAL Pro-Choice America.
Along with the ban, which would put abortion care out of reach for women before many even find out they are pregnant, Senate Bill 8 allows any citizen—regardless of their connection to a patient or lack thereof—to sue anyone who “aids or abets” abortion care.
As The Guardianreported, the measure opens up “a breathtakingly wide range of possible people and groups” who could be sued for […]
Stephan: Finally, it is beginning to dawn on some politicians, those who are not corrupted, or just plain dim, that policies that foster welbeing produce better results than the usual let's punish the poor policies. So I see this as good news, particularly because this view is spreading, as this story describes.
A mother and son walk through one of the neighborhoods of Stockton where participants in the city’s universal basic income program live in Stockton, California, on February 7, 2020.
It’s probably safe to say that a few years ago, most Americans weren’t familiar with the term universal basic income, commonly abbreviated as UBI. But more recently, as the idea has grown in popularity among the tech community, and with Andrew Yang’s presidential run putting it into the political spotlight, the idea of everybody in the country receiving a monthly check just for existing has begun to capture the public’s imagination and has become a more normalized part of the political lexicon.
It’s important to note that there are multiple versions of universal basic income, from libertarian or right-wing iterations which see the UBI as a replacement for public benefits, to more progressive versions, such as those discussed in this article, which are intended as a supplement to already existing social safety net programs and which do not use means-testing (such as requiring employment) as a qualifying factor.
Stephan: I cannot tell you how much I want to stop having to write about the Trump trend. But, as you can see on any news program, or on the front page of any paper, the endless fecal storm that always swirls around Trump never ends, and it looks like his corruption and criminality will continue to haunt our days for months maybe years to come.
Taxpayers are still footing the bill for Donald Trump to pay aides, Business Insider reported Monday.
“President Donald Trump’s advisor Stephen Miller lost his White House access on January 20, but he continues to pocket a government paycheck — and is slated to do so until late July, according to government records,” Business Insider reported. “Miller is one of at least 17 people who continued to receive taxpayer-funded salaries while working for Trump’s post-presidential transition office, according to government documents released to Insider under the Freedom of Information Act. Trump’s post-presidential staff is expected to receive about $1.3 million in federal salary and benefits between January 20 and July 21, when the formal presidential transition period ends, according to an estimate prepared by the General Services Administration.”
That allows Trump to spend more than $200,000 a month on salary and benefits.
“For Trump, accepting public money has meant employing 10 transition aides in Palm Beach, Florida — where Trump has been living since he left the White House — and another seven aides in an office building […]
Stephan: Here is a trend about which you read almost nothing but which is having a significant influence. The breakdown of America and its ideological divisions, one might more accurately say differing realities, is not a worldwide phenomenon, and it is changing the way the world looks at us and considers our status in the world. We are greatly diminished.
Demonstrators argue during a protest against U.S. immigration policies in New York City in 2018. Credit: Karla Ann Cote/NurPhoto/Getty
When it comes to key cultural issues, Americans are significantly more divided along ideological lines than people in the United Kingdom, France and Germany, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of surveys conducted in the four countries in fall 2020.
Across 11 questions on cultural subjects ranging from nationalism to political correctness, the gap between the ideological left and right in the United States – or liberals and conservatives, in the common U.S. parlance – is significantly wider than the ideological gaps found in the European countries surveyed. In some cases, this is because America’s conservatives are outliers. In other cases, it’s because America’s liberals are outliers. In still other cases, both the right and left in the U.S. hold more extreme positions than their European counterparts, resulting in ideological gaps that are more than twice the size of those seen in the UK, Germany or France.
Below, we explore these trends in more detail.How we did this
