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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: More good news from the Biden administration and the Senate Democrats, accompanied by three Republicans. All the rest of the Republicans, of course, voted against it. Finally, we are seeing some serious action about Methane, a major source of human-mediated climate change.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (left) and Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) speak at a press conference prior to a Senate vote to reinstate Obama-era methane emissions standards, April 28, 2021. Credit: Sarah Silbiger/Getty
Why the Senate’s move to reverse Trump’s deregulation of methane molecules is so critical, and where the resolution goes next.
The Senate on Wednesday took an important step forward on limiting emissions — and meeting its commitments to curb global warming — by voting to limit the unbridled release of methane molecules, often a byproduct of natural gas production, into the atmosphere.
The 52-42 vote reinstates the Oil and Natural Gas New Source Performance Standards, a handful of Obama-era regulations on methane emissions rolled back by former President Donald Trump in August 2020. The measure drew support from every Senate Democrat, as well as Republican Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), who has opposed GOP efforts to deregulate methane emissions in the past; Lindsey Graham (R-SC); and Rob Portman (R-OH). The rule is expected to be taken up and passed by the House of Representatives in May.
Stephan: It is one of modern history's great paradoxes. The Jews who populated Israel came from countries where they had been persecuted and forced to live in ghettoes for centuries. Yet, when they finally got their own country what did they do? They treated the Palestinians exactly as they had been treated, and I think it has poisoned Israel's status in the world. And Human Rights Watch agrees. Here is its judgment.
JERUSALEM, ISRAEL — Israeli authorities are committing the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The finding is based on an overarching Israeli government policy to maintain the domination by Jewish Israelis over Palestinians and grave abuses committed against Palestinians living in the occupied territory, including East Jerusalem.
The 213-page report, “A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution,” examines Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. It presents the present-day reality of a single authority, the Israeli government, ruling primarily over the area between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea, populated by two groups of roughly equal size, and methodologically privileging Jewish Israelis while repressing Palestinians, most severely in the occupied territory.April 27, 2021
“Prominent voices have warned for years that apartheid lurks just around the corner if the trajectory of Israel’s rule over Palestinians does not change,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. “This detailed study shows that Israeli authorities have already turned that corner and today are committing the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution.”
The finding of apartheid and persecution does not change the legal status […]
Paul Krugman, Nobel Laureate and columnist - The New York Times
Stephan: As usual Paul Krugman is spot on and correct. I think what was once the Republican Party and is now an anti-democratic White supremacy, christofascist cult, must find a way to reinvent itself by deciding what policies its supports, instead of its obsession with victimhood and fantasy.
Credit: Sasha Arutyunova for The New York Times
Conservatives beware: If the main elements in Joe Biden’s American Family Plan become law, they’ll be very hard to repeal. Why? Because they’ll deliver huge, indeed transformational benefits to millions.
I mean, just imagine trying to take away affordable child care, universal pre-K and paid leave for new parents once they’ve become part of the fabric of our society. You’d face a backlash far worse than the one that followed Republican attempts to eliminate protection for coverage of pre-existing health conditions in 2017. And that backlash quickly gave Democrats control of the House and set the stage for their current control of the Senate and White House as well.
So what’s the Republican counterargument? Well, much of the party appears uninterested in debating policy, preferring to lash out at imaginary plans to ban red meat or give immigrants Kamala Harris’s children’s book.
The official G.O.P. response to Biden’s speech on Wednesday, by Senator Tim Scott, seemed low-energy; Scott is still complaining about “big government” and denouncing Biden for spending money on things other […]
Stephan: I think it is very important to compare the presidencies of the current and previous two presidencies. It gives us a way of seeing clearly that those programs that foster wellbeing always demonstrate Schwartz' Law of Wellbeing: The option that fosters wellbeing is always more efficient, more productive, easier to implement, nicer to live under, and much much cheaper than the alternatives.
As a candidate, Joe Biden pitched himself as the anti-Donald Trump.
And as president, he has so far kept his focus on trying to be the opposite of his predecessor.
On some fronts, he’s been successful. NBC News kept track of several key metrics that show how Biden, Trump and Barack Obama compared during the first 100 days of each of their presidencies.
The numbers help to show how much Biden has attempted to undo his predecessor’s legacy. Some key findings.
Trump vowed to remake the government using executive orders he said would quickly undo many of the Obama administration’s policies. According to NBC News’ count, he signed 29 in his first 100 days. But Biden, who vowed to undo many Trump policies using executive orders, signed more than 40 in his first 100 days, according to the Federal Register. (Obama signed 19.)
Trump, through his first 100 days, signed 29 pieces of legislation into law. Biden, on the other hand, has signed only 11, according to the White House. But his Covid-19 relief […]
Stephan: This is a unique period in American history. We no longer have a functioning two-party political system. On one side we have a party undertaking social transformation to foster wellbeing. On the other side, we have a kind of cult with no real philosophy other than attaining and retaining power. They are so desperate about this that they are taking credit for the Covid relief package even though they voted against it. Here is an article that lays out this reality. I think it is important for each of us to understand what is going on here.
Capitol seen from Russell Senate Office Building. Credit: Samuel Corum/Getty
As Congress prepared to pass the Democrats’ COVID relief package last month, plenty of lawmakers made predictions about its efficacy and the impact it would have on the economy. But as regular readers may recall, Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.), chairman of the House Budget Committee, offered a different kind of prediction on the chamber floor.
“What we are all concerned about on our side,” Yarmuth said, referring to Democrats, “is that the Republicans are all going to vote against this, and then they’re going to show up at every ribbon cutting, and at every project funded out of this bill, and they’re going to pump up their chests and take credit for all of these great benefits that are coming to their citizens.”
The Kentucky Democrat knew of what he spoke. A wide variety of GOP lawmakers have done exactly that.
This started in earnest with Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), who celebrated the American Rescue Plan’s beneficial “targeted relief” for restaurants, while failing to mention that he voted […]
Stephan: What too many of us do not seem to understand is that the earth operates on its own schedule. Climate change is happening whether the Republicans believe in it or not.
In the future, history is going to show how lucky the country was to have chosen Biden and Harris for President and Vice President.
Klinaklini Glacier, the largest glacier in Western Canada Credit: Brian Menounos
Earth’s glaciers are shrinking, and in the past 20 years, the rate of shrinkage has steadily sped up, according to a new study of nearly every glacier on the planet.
Glaciers mostly lose mass through ice melt, but they also shrink due to other processes, such as sublimation, where water evaporates directly from the ice, and calving, where large chunks of ice break off the edge of a glacier, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). By tracking how quickly glaciers are shrinking, scientists can better predict how quickly sea levels may rise, particularly as climate change drives up average global temperatures.
But estimating the rate of glacier shrinkage can be notoriously difficult; past estimates relied on field studies of only a few hundred glaciers out of the more than 200,000 on Earth, as well as sparse satellite data with limited resolution, the authors noted in their new study, published Wednesday (April 28) in the journal Nature.
Some of this satellite data captured changes in surface elevation, but […]
Stephan: We not only have one of the worst healthcare systems amongst the democratic nations of the world, we are known and seen to have one of the worst systems. This article tells the truth and it is embarrassing.
Woman reacting to high US healthcare costs Credit: Screen Grab
“I couldn’t have survived if I was in America.”
That’s what one woman concluded in a video published Wednesday by the New York Times‘ opinion section, after recounting the weeks she spent in the hospital as a child being treated for a brain virus.
She was just one of several people from around the world who participated in the Times project. Throughout the video, residents of Canada, Finland, Germany, Japan, Singapore, Sweden, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom respond to the high costs of healthcare in the for-profit U.S. system.On the Raw Story Podcast: Marcus Flowers Marjorie Taylor Green’s worst nightmare
The United States is the only industrialized country in the world without universal health coverage. While the stars of the Times video were shocked and outraged upon learning how much care costs in the so-called “land of the free,” progressives in the U.S. responded with calls for Medicare for All.
No one in America should vote for politicians who choose to subject us to this,” Briahna Joy Gray
Stephan: The pharmaceutical industry is a major part of America's illness profit system, and the whole vaccine trend illustrates its operation. It is a story of profit over human wellbeing. This interview with Stephen Buranyi makes the fact-based case very clear.
In the future, societies that only have profit as a social priority will prosper much less than societies that make fostering wellbeing their first priority. The social outcome data is already clear about this.
Preparing an injection of Covid-19 vaccine
During the earliest months of the coronavirus pandemic, world leaders and corporate executives alike embraced the rhetoric of social solidarity, often drawing on nostalgic memories of war efforts past and common sacrifice in the face of adversity. That rhetoric, to put it mildly, did not realize itself in the form of policy: the pandemic has disproportionately hit the most vulnerable while billionaires have made a killing.
Despite early suggestions that the knowledge and expertise required for mass production of vaccines would be widely shared, private industry has maintained control thanks to restrictive intellectual property laws designed to protect its profits — the result being a slowed rollout that puts private wealth ahead of human need, even as pharma companies reap the benefits from public subsidies and publicly funded scientific research.
Stephen Buranyi is a science journalist living in London and a former researcher in immunology who has written on vaccine politics and production for the Guardian, the New York Times, and Prospect magazine. Jacobin spoke with Buranyi about the moral and political failure that is the global pandemic response, the history of […]
