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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: I read this story this morning and four readers, including my wife, also sent it to me. They were appalled and so was I. United States' law enforcement is now shown to the world to be a criminal operation. We are constantly bragging to the world and to ourselves that we have the best justice system and the fairest police system. It is a lie, and we need to stop telling it. According to the World Justice Project, recognized internationally as the authoritative voice on this subject, we are not even in the top 10 nations for a fair and honorable system of justice.
Demonstrators hold posters of Daunte Wright during a protest near the Brooklyn Center police department in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota 16 April 2021. Credit: Kerem Yucel/AFP/Getty
The systematic killing and maiming of unarmed African Americans by police amount to crimes against humanity that should be investigated and prosecuted under international law, an inquiry into US police brutality by leading human rights lawyers from around the globe has found.
A week after the former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murder in George Floyd’s death, the unabated epidemic of police killings of Black men and women in the US has now attracted scorching international attention.
In a devastating report running to 188 pages, human rights experts from 11 countries hold the US accountable for what they say is a long history of violations of international law that rise in some cases to the level of crimes against humanity.
They point to what they call “police murders” as well as “severe deprivation of physical liberty, torture, persecution and other inhuman acts” as systematic attacks on the Black community that meet the definition […]
Stephan: In contrast to the previous humiliating article here is some more good news from President Biden and his administration. A civilized nation recognizes that children are a nation's future and it is in everyone's best interest that the state support the fostering of wellbeing of those children. It is such a different world since January 6th.
Credit: Shutterstock
President Joe Biden is preparing to go big with proposal that will benefit millions of children — while saving their families big money.
“President Joe Biden is set to announce $200 billion in education funding as part of his sweeping spending package he will unveil prior to his prime-time address to a joint session of Congress, according to a White House official. The proposal will direct the funds toward universal pre-school for all three- and four-year-olds through a national partnership with states, the official said. The White House estimates it will benefit 5 million children and save the average family $13,000 when the plan is fully implemented,” CNN reported Tuesday.
“The proposal marks a key plank of Biden’s roughly $1.8 trillion American Families Plan, the second prong of his sweeping $4 trillion in spending on physical infrastructure, research and development, home care, child care, paid family […]
Stephan: Anyone who bothers to follow international news knows that Jair Bolsonaro, president of Brazil, and a full-fledged fascist Trumper, and his corrupt administration, have trashed the economy and wellbeing of Brazil, and his management of the Covid pandemic has been as bad as Trump's was. That's what makes this story all the more fascinating. Here is a story of how a community just a few miles from Rio de Janeiro, in spite of the disaster that is Bolsonaro, has followed a path promoting wellbeing and succeeded. The contrast between Marica and Rio is historically significant, and I hope the world is watching. The American media, of course, has paid no attention to any of this.
Jandira Freitas shows off her mumbuca card — aid in the form of digital currency — that helped her start her own small business in the socialist city of Marica, Brazil, where she lives Credit: Monica Yanakiew/Al Jazeera
MARICA, BRAZIL —Located just 60km from Rio de Janeiro, Marica has modelled itself into a very different city, paying residents a universal basic income, using its own digital currency and procuring its own vaccines.
More than a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, Brazil seems set on beating its own tragic records on a daily basis. By April, 4,000 Brazilians were dying every 24 hours — an average of one every 20 seconds — and many while waiting for beds in overcrowded intensive care units.
Stephan: This is a stunning bit of Republican insanity. In Texas, a state-controlled by Republicans, they are trying to eliminate any need for gun licensing so any wacko or angry person would be legally allowed to carry a handgun. If they succeed Texas will become the 14th state to pass such legislation, all in Republican-controlled states. As I read this story I had an image in my mind of some bar full of gun-toting Trumper White men when suddenly something sets one of them off -- so easily done -- and suddenly it is the Wild West again. Actually, I realized as I thought this that in the Wild West the sheriffs or marshalls did not permit random wackos to wander around armed. Even television writers in the 1950s understood this. Making men give up their guns was a frequent drama point in the classic Gunsmoke series.
During a trip through Texas last month, I found myself waiting in the security line at the state Capitol. To enter, I had to pass through a metal detector. But to my left there was a separate line: It allowed Texans with handgun permits to enter the building uninspected. Now, amid yet another round of mass shootings, Texas is moving toward getting rid of those permits altogether.
This week, the Texas House of Representatives passed a bill that would allow adults to carry handguns without first getting a license to do so. If the bill became law, Texas would become the 14th state to pass a so-called “constitutional carry” bill. Texans over the age of 21 would no longer need to take a safety course and pass a test at a shooting range to carry open or concealed handguns.
The Texas House passed the bill on Thursday in a 84–56 vote. That evening, the NRA celebrated the news with a tweet that included a celebratory emoji. A few hours later, in the latest in a string of mass shootings, a man killed eight people at a […]
Stephan: America's gun psychosis is completely out of control. Even worse it has become linked to masculinity, patriotism, and White power. We have a gun death rate in the U.S. that is a humiliating national embarassment, and yet the killings, the death, never seems to reach a level where it causes us as a nation to do anything about it.
Senate Judiciary Committee member Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) uses imagees of handguns and rifles during a hearing about gun control on Capitol Hill January 30, 2013 in Washington, DC. Shooting victim and former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-AZ) delivered an opening statment to the committee, which met for the first time since the mass shooting at a Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty
The COVID-19 pandemic has done nothing to stop America’s addiction to gun violence. Writing at the Nation, Tom Engelhardt explains, “In the first 73 days of Joe Biden’s presidency, there were five mass shootings and more than 10,000 gun-violence deaths. In the Covid-19 era, this has been the model the world’s ‘most exceptional’ nation (as American politicians of both parties used to love to call this country) has set for the rest of the planet. Put […]
Stephan: The History of Police Killing Children in America. The headline says all that needs to be said. Law enforcement in America needs to be completely restructured. The way people are recruited needs to be changed, the way they are trained needs to be changed. The deaths of children, particularly Black and Brown children needs to stop. A civilized country does not permit its police to kill its children.
A small memorial where 13-year-old Adam Toledo was shot and killed by a Chicago police officer in the Little Village neighborhood on April 15, 2021, in Chicago, Illinois. Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski/Getty
Just 25 minutes before the country took a collective sigh of relief as Derek Chauvin was declared guilty on all counts for the murder of George Floyd, another Black person was killed by police. This time, the victim was a child.
Columbus police officer Nicholas Reardon shot 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant in the chest multiple times after he and several other officers responded to a call that Bryant herself placed. “My daughter dispatched Columbus police for protection, not to be a homicide today,” her mother, Paula Bryant, told 10TV News. “[Ma’Khia] promoted peace. And that’s something that I always want to be remembered” she said.
Bryant’s death is one more in a long list of Black and brown children who have died at the hands of police officers: Last week, 17-year-old Anthony J. Thompson Jr. was shot in his high school bathroom when police responded to an emergency call. Last month, 13-year-old […]
Stephan: Several anti-vaxxers, anti-maskers have been sending me emails about a "Stanford/NIH study" saying masks don't work. Is any of it true? Well, here is the Snopes take on it.
Claim
A “Stanford/NIH” study concluded that face masks worn to prevent COVID-19 transmission do not work.
The paper was published by an exercise physiologist with no academic connection to Stanford University or the NIH in a journal that accepts “radical, speculative and non-mainstream scientific ideas.”
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As more than one year passes since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, Snopes is still fighting an “infodemic” of rumors and misinformation, and you can help. Find out what we’ve learned and how to inoculate yourself against COVID-19 misinformation. Read the latest fact checks about the vaccines. Submit any questionable rumors and “advice” you encounter. Become a Founding Member to help us hire more fact-checkers. And, please, follow the CDC or WHO for guidance on protecting your community from the disease.
The journal Medical Hypotheses publishes extremely speculative notions without the burden of “traditional” peer review. The journal says it accepts “radical, speculative and non-mainstream scientific ideas provided they are coherently […]
Stephan: The Fox propaganda operation which caters to christofascists, White supremacists, and morons has, in my opinion, become complicit in sabotaging America's attempt to get the Covid pandemic under control which, I think, should be criminally actionable. So I am awarding Fox, and Tucker Carllson, today's Republican Scum Award.
Credit: Shutterstock
On Monday, Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s segment went completely off the rails when he urged viewers to call child services on parents who are masking up their kids to protect them from COVID-19.
“Masks have always been incompatible with a free society,” said Carlson. “Masks are for the guilty. They’re signifiers of shame and submission.”
“Next time you see someone in a mask on the sidewalk or on the bike path, do not hesitate, ask politely but firmly, would you please take off your mask? Science shows there is no reason for you to be wearing it. Your mask is making me uncomfortable,” said Carlson. “We should do that, and we should keep doing it until wearing a mask outside is roughly as socially acceptable as lighting a Marlboro in an elevator. It’s repulsive.”
“As for forcing children to wear masks outside, that should be […]
