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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: The thing that stands out for me about this attempt to subvert democracy by the Trump Cultists is how blatant the whole thing is, and how many Americans are just fine with what is being done.
Trump Cultist Michigan State Rep. Matt Maddock is a lead sponsor of legislation that would require fact checkers to register with the state and face possible fines for improper findings. Do you think anyone could look any smugger? Credit: Michigan House Republicans
Michigan state Republican lawmakers introduced legislation on Tuesday that would require news organizations that produce fact-checked articles to register with the state. Under the legislation, if state officials deem facts within the reporting to be untrue, the organization would be subject to fines.
House Bills 4813 and 4814 would apply to news organizations and websites that are part of the International Fact-Checking Network, created by the Poynter Institute, an organization that is dedicated to improving journalism and is attempting to connect fact checkers from around the world through the network.
The bills would require fact checkers to register with the office of the state’s secretary of state, and to insure themselves with a $1 million bond against the possibility of fines in the amount of $1,000 any time state officials find something has been incorrectly reported. The legislation would also […]
Jennifer Sarrett, Lecturer, Center for Study of Human Health, Emory University - AlterNet/Conversation
Stephan: The United States has 4.23% of the world's population and 25% of the world's prisoners, 2.3 million men and women, with a grotesque racial bias against people of color. The American Gulag is a national shame, and we are absolute hypocrites whenever we speak about the prison systems of other nations. Yet, you rarely hear about any of this. But matters are even worse than that. Back in the period of the Nixon administration, the Republicans decided to close down mental health institutions where the mentally ill could be safely housed and treated. The result? Of the 2.3 million prisoners in the American Gulag, more than 550,000, as this report describes, have emotional and intellectual disabilities. Yet another failure of the U.S. illness profit system, another shame America will not face.
High as they are, these rates are likely to be an underestimate. They are based on self-reports, and research has shown many people fail to report a disability – particularly an intellectual or cognitive disability – to avoid stigma or because they simply don’t know they have one.
The Bureau of Justice Statistics has also found that people with cognitive, intellectual and developmental disabilities are more prevalent in jails – where people are sent immediately after arrest, to await trial or to serve a sentence of one year or less – than prisons. Jails tend to be associated with what have been called “crimes of survival,” such as shoplifting and loitering. These offenses are linked to unemployed people and people experiencing homelessness – communities in which rates of disabilities are higher.
As a result, a disproportionate amount of people with disabilities enter America’s criminal justice system. I see this in my research on intellectual and developmental disabilities – diagnoses like autism, fetal alcohol syndrome, ADD/ADHD, Down syndrome, and general cognitive impairment are common in our criminal justice system.
Stephan: Criminal Trump knew exactly what he intended and created on 6th January, and it was not, as the Trump Cultists are now claiming, "normal tourist visits." Everything the TCs have been saying from that day to this has been nothing but knowing lies. These Congress members and Trump himself are actively trying to destroy our democracy.
Well, this is new.
Trump told his acting Secretary of Defense to use military force for what purpose?
Miller: Trump said "do whatever was necessary to protect the demonstrators that were executing their constitutionally protected rights."
President Donald Trump asked for National Guard troops to be deployed to protect his supporters at the rally on January 6 that culminated in hundreds of those supporters violently storming the Capitol, his former acting defense secretary told lawmakers on Wednesday.
Christopher Miller told the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Wednesday that he held a meeting with Trump on January 3, three days before the violent siege in Washington, DC, which resulted in at least five fatalities.
Miller said that Trump asked at the meeting if there had been any requests for National Guard support at the “Stop the Steal” rally on January 6, where Trump and his supporters would gather to make allegations of voter fraud in November’s presidential election.
Miller said he told Trump that Muriel Bowser, the mayor of the District of Columbia, had requested unarmed National Guard support for the planned demonstrations […]
Stephan: This report spells out a truth to which we should give the most serious consideration. A revised version of our civilization needs to emerge. One that understands and factors in the interconnectedness and interdependence of all life. We must restore the balance of the matrix of life, or we are going to make our lives miserable.
In the national park of Axios Delta near Thessaloniki city in Greece, there are 295 species of birds, 350 species of plants, 40 species of mammals, 18 species of reptiles, 9 species of amphibians and 7 species of invertebrates. Credit:Nicolas Economou / NurPhoto/Getty
The problem of biodiversity loss is not simply a matter of funding, a new report examining the failures of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has warned.
Instead, policy makers need to consider the structural causes that promote habitat and species loss, especially in poorer countries.
“Our research shows that not only are more financial resources necessary to stem the biodiversity crisis, but we need a broader rethink about how the rules of the economy are driving the sixth extinction,” the report’s co-lead researcher, Dr. Jessica Dempsey from the University of British Columbia’s Department of Geography, said in a University of Lancaster press release.
Dino Grandoni and Brady Dennis , Energy and Environmental Policy Reporter | Pulitzer Prize-winning national reporter - The Washington Post
Stephan: The thing about Trump as president that so amazed me is that he seemed to believe that if you censure people from talking about climate change you don't need to deal with it. As if it wouldn't happen. I think history is going to look back at Trump as the world's greatest mass murderer. He is going to be seen as one of history's monsters.
Ice forms along the Lake Michigan shoreline near downtown Chicago in February. An Environmental Protection Agency report detailed climate-related damage in the United States, including the loss of ice on the Great Lakes. Credit: Scott Olson/Getty
For years, President Donald Trump and his deputies played down the impact of greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels and delayed the release of an Environmental Protection Agency report detailing climate-related damage. But on Wednesday, the EPA released a detailed and disturbing account of the startling changes that Earth’s warming had on parts of the United States during Trump’s presidency.
The destruction of year-round permafrost in Alaska, loss of winter ice on the Great Lakes and spike in summer heat waves in U.S. cities all signal that climate change is intensifying, the EPA said in its report. The assessment, which languished under the Trump administration for three years, marks the first time the agency has said such changes are being driven at least in part by human-caused global warming.
As it launched an updated webpage to inform the […]
Paul Krugman, Nobel Laureate, Professor, and Columnist - The New York Times
Stephan: As usual Paul Krugman focuses on the critical leverage point. To survive as a democracy we as a culture must make fostering wellbeing our first priority. You can make a profit but you must prove that what you are doing, or want to do, fosters wellbeing. Profit above all else societies are not going to survive as democracies during climate change.
Redit: Matt Black/Magnum Photos
Has the Republican Party, which has championed the interests of big business and sought to keep wages low since the late 19th century, suddenly become populist? Some of its rising stars would have you believe so. For example, after the 2020 election Senator Josh Hawley declared that “we must be a working-class party, not a Wall Street party.”
But while Republicans have lately attacked selected businesses, their beef with big companies seems to be over noneconomic issues. It bothers them a lot that some of corporate America has taken a mild stand in favor of social equality and against voter suppression.
What doesn’t bother them is the fact that many corporations pay little or nothing in taxes and pay their workers poorly. On such matters the G.O.P. is the same as it ever was: It’s for tax cuts that favor corporations and the wealthy, against anything that might improve the lives of ordinary workers.
The latest example: the Republican push to end enhanced unemployment benefits […]
Stephan: Mike DeWine, the Republican Governor of Ohio, is not getting anywhere near the attention, and respect he should. DeWine is an ethical Republican, and he has come up with one of the most interesting policies in the country to stimulate those reluctant to get vaccinated to get their shots. Such a very different politician from Jim Jordan, Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and so many others at both the federal and state levels.
Republican Governor of Ohio Mike DeWine
Ohio will give away $1 million each to five vaccinated adults within the coming weeks as an incentive for residents to get the shot, Gov. Mike DeWine announced on Wednesday.
The first drawing will occur on May 26, with subsequent drawings occurring each Wednesday for a total of five weeks. To win, participants must be 18 or older, an Ohio resident and vaccinated with at least one Covid vaccine dose before the lottery takes place. The five winners will receive $1 million from existing federal coronavirus relief funds, DeWine said.
“I know that some may say, ‘DeWine, you’re crazy! This million-dollar drawing idea of yours is a waste of money,’” the governor wrote on Twitter. “But truly, the real waste at this point in the pandemic — when the vaccine is readily available to anyone who wants it — is a life lost to COVID-19.”
The drawing will be conducted by the Ohio Lottery and will gather residents’ names from the Ohio secretary of state’s voter registration database. DeWine added that the state […]
Jillian Ambrose and Oliver Milman, - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan: More good news from the Biden administration, 84 offshore wind turbines that will be able to power 400,000 homes. I am beginning to feel a small flicker of optimism that Biden and his administration are putting us back on track to deal with climate change.
Turbines off Block Island, south of Rhode Island. The Biden administration hopes the Massachusetts project will be a model for a sharp rise in offshore wind energy development in the US. Photograph: Michael Dwyer/AP
Joe Biden’s administration has approved the construction of the US’s first large-scale offshore windfarm, with 84 turbines to be erected off the coast of Massachusetts.
The approval of the project, which will generate about 800 megawatts of energy, enough to power around 400,000 homes and businesses, is a boost to Biden’s agenda of ramping up renewable energy production across the US in order to confront the climate crisis.
The US has lagged behind other countries in offshore wind, despite its lengthy coastlines, but the Biden administration said the new Vineyard Wind project will be the first of many as it aims to generate 30 gigawatts of energy from offshore wind by 2030. Two other offshore proposals, located in New York, are also now under review.
“A clean energy future is within our grasp in the United States,” said Deb Haaland, secretary of the interior. “The approval of this project […]
