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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.
David Ake, - International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
Stephan:
Yet another story about the vast corruption of the U.S. government, this story one about how the rich and big corporations get special treatment from the IRS. What this country needs is a revolution. It is a disgusting tale of the real facts. The revolution we need is not the kind criminal Trump and the MAGAts have in mind. We need a revolution in which all government policies and agency actions have the fostering of wellbeing as their first priority. We aren’t going to get it with this election even if Biden wins, but over the next four years if enough of us are committed to it, and work to make it clear that is what we want perhaps in the 2028 election a new generation of leadership may make it happen.
The Internal Revenue Service building in Washington, D.C. Credit: Tada Images / Shutterstock
Michael Welu worked at the IRS for decades as a specialist in helping agents identify and investigate possible tax crimes. In an agency known for offices working in their own silos, Welu had the rare ability to move between divisions, dissecting and learning each office’s particular customs and procedures. But that experience had its own consequence for Welu: Seeing disparities in how the separate divisions treated different tiers of taxpayers left him exasperated and helped drive him into early retirement.
For more than 30 years, Welu watched the agency struggle with budget cuts and dwindling staff. What troubled Welu, he says, went deeper than just resource constraints.
During his time at the IRS, he says, upper management in the division tasked with auditing large corporations and ultrawealthy people — the Large Business and International Division — was quick to dismiss any suggestion that a powerful taxpayer may have committed a […]
The more I learn about AI the more it seems to me to be a very mixed bag. For one thing, I think bots may be one of the reasons SR gets so many hacks. What really concerns me is the amount of misinformation being spewed out by bots that influence human perceptions and thinking. I believe it is affecting governments all over the world, particularly democracies because they are based on human consensus.
Illustration by: Gabriella Turrisi/Axios
A new kind of turf war is breaking out on the web, with AI bots battling other AI bots to seize or defend stockpiles of the AI era’s most valuable commodity: data.
The big picture: AI makers hungry for more data to train their language models are grabbing everything they can, while information owners are increasingly fighting fire with fire by turning to AI-powered tools to protect their intellectual property.
Driving the news: Cloudflare, the infrastructure and security firm used by 1 in 5 websites, introduced a new service last week that protects clients’ content from poaching by data-harvesting bots.
“We hear clearly that customers don’t want AI bots visiting their websites, and especially those that do so dishonestly. To help, we’ve added a brand new one-click to block all AI bots,” Cloudflare said in a blog post.
Catch up quick: Since the ’90s, websites have used a simple file on their sites —called “robots.txt” […]
I am surprised the media has not seemed to comprehend that everyone criminal Trump apooints to anything, from staff to agencies, to courts are corrupt. Look at how many are in prison. I think you have to be corrupt and willing to be subservient to Trump in order for him to appoint or hire you.
Judge with Gavel Credit:Shutterstock
A Trump-appointed federal judge was forced to resign this month after just four years on the bench and a blistering ethics complaint detailed his hostile work environment and sexual misconduct with a law clerk and federal prosecutor.
Judge Joshua Kindred, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska, abruptly moved to step down last week. At the time, he did not give a reason.
On Monday, however, the Judicial Council of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit released a report going into extensive detail on the allegations against Kindred, and announced that he was pressured into resigning under referral to the Judicial Conference to consider impeachment.
According to the report, Kindred created a hostile work environment by incessantly “discuss[ing] his past dating life, his romantic preferences, his sex life, the law clerks’ boyfriends and dating lives, his divorce, his interest in and communications with […]
I have many issues with the cost of colleges and universities, but this sad decline in confidence about higher education I see as the result of misinformation and MAGAtism. Note that there is a correlation between the drop in confidence and affiliation with the MAGAt Party. Consider this: 54% of the American public can only read to 6th grade level — so they are unable to fully comprehend a newspaper or magazine article — and now because of specious political reasons there is a decline in confidence in higher education. Combine this with our poor healthcare, shorter lifespans, and growing obesity, and what one sees is a nation in serious decline.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — An increasing proportion of U.S. adults say they have little or no confidence in higher education. As a result, Americans are now nearly equally divided among those who have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence (36%), some confidence (32%), or little or no confidence (32%) in higher education. When Gallup first measured confidence in higher education in 2015, 57% had a great deal or quite a lot of confidence and 10% had little or none.
The latest results are based on a June 3-23 Gallup survey that gauged Americans’ confidence in various institutions. A follow-up story reporting on the remainder of institutions will be published in the coming days.
This year, Gallup and Lumina Foundation partnered to better understand the nature of confidence in higher education. The research includes the trend results reported above from Gallup’s June telephone survey as well as new results from a contemporaneous web survey of more than 2,000 Gallup Panel members.
A review of the historical trends shows that confidence has dropped among all key subgroups in the U.S. population […]
The Supreme Court of the United States is controlled by a corrupt cabal of christofascists. Decision by decision this cabal is transforming the country into a a corrupt fascist state. They have just issued, on the basis of the usual 6-3 majority, a decision legalizing corruption. The christofascists have ruled that while it might be illegal to bribe a politician or administrator before they made a decision, it was legal to give them a thank you gift after they made the decision. Really! That means Thomas and Alito are not legally corrupt — although, of course, they are. Day by day the country we have grown up in is disappearing, and the rich are being given more and more power. This election is not about personalities it about whether America remains a democracy.
Former President criminal Donald Trump greets corrupt Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh before his 2019 State of the Union address. Credit: Mandel Ngan / AFP
On a 6-3 party-line vote, the Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that state officials may accept “gratuities” from people who wish to reward them for their official actions, despite a federal anti-corruption statute that appears to ban such rewards.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote the opinion in Snyder v. United States for the Court’s Republican-appointed majority. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote the dissent on behalf of the Court’s three Democratic appointees.
Snyder turns on a distinction between “bribes” and “gratuities.” As Kavanaugh writes, “bribes are payments made or agreed to before an official act in order to influence the official with respect to that future official act.” Gratuities, by contrast, “are typically payments made to an official after an official act as a token of appreciation.” (Emphasis added.)
If that seems like a negligible difference, the facts of this case will probably only underscore that sentiment.
Scott W. Lang, Attorney and Former Mayor of New Bedford, Masssachusetts - Boston Globe
Stephan:
There is, as this article by a long-term Democrat politician describes, a growing sense in the Democratic Party that it is time for Biden to retire. The problem is who would replace him and could a campaign be organized in the short time remaining? I don’t see Kamala Harris as the replacement. I would propose, as I have been doing since this election period began, Gavin Newsom and Gretchen Whitmer.
President Biden at a campaign rally in Raleigh, N.C., on June 28.Credit: Matt Kelley / AP
As a lifelong Democrat who has been active in the national party since 1972, I admire President Biden and enthusiastically voted for him in 2020. Since then, I believe that he has done an excellent job navigating our country through difficult times.
But for months now, I have argued that, because of his low approval ratings and the public’s deep doubts about his physical stamina and mental acumen, he should not seek reelection. After his horrendous performance in last week’s debatewith Donald Trump,I feel more strongly that he is in political free fall and must quit the race as soon as possible.
His campaign’s response to Biden’s stumbling debate has not been a confidence builder. They have argued that the party should stick with him because of his distinguished 50-year career, his 2020 win over former president Trump, and […]
The rest of the world is looking at America and not at all sure that the people of the United States are smart enough not to elect criminal Trump to the Presidency again, and to preserve their democracy. So they are making, as this article describes, all sorts of calculations and arrangements to prepare for that eventuality. The world is watching what we do in November.
Earlier this year, Trump said he would give Russia free rein to “do whatever the hell they want” to NATO allies that do not meet their defense-spending obligations. Credit: Brendan Smialowski / AFP / Getty
In Brussels, NATO officials have devised a plan to lock in long-term military support for Ukraine so that a possible Trump administration can’t get in the way.
In Ankara, Turkish officials have reviewed the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 policy road map for clues into Donald Trump’s designs on Syria.
In Atlanta, Austin and Lincoln, Nebraska, top ministers from Germany and Canada have met with Republican governors to shore up relations on the American right.
And in Washington, Trump’s return is the dominant topic at monthly breakfast meetings of ambassadors from European countries. At one of those meetings, the top envoy from one country asked his colleagues whether they were engaged in a fool’s errand.
“Can we really prepare for Trump?” this person asked, according to another top diplomat. “Or do we rather have to wait and see what the […]
I think this article is a very good assessment of the social dynamic that is really going on in the United States politically. It is not about political philosophy, it is about sociopaths who want power and money vs decent ethical people who want to preserve democracy and foster wellbeing. WE all get to choose which side we are on in November.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) attend a House Oversight Committee hearing related to the Justice Department’s investigation of Hunter Biden, on Capitol Hill July 19, 2023 in Washington, DC. Credit: Drew Angerer / Getty
The culture war is not fundamentally between left and right, liberal and conservative, progressive and reactionary, tolerant and intolerant.
Fundamentally it has nothing to do with ideals, values or visions of the future. It’s a fight between decent people and sociopaths.
Psychopaths are congenitally shameless. Born, that way, they are neurologically deaf to the inner nag of empathy.
Sociopaths aren’t born but made. Some are brainwashed but many are not. Many are motivated sociopaths because being one is tempting, satisfying, efficient and effective.
Sociopaths learn how to be shameless. We underestimate the appeal of shamelessness. Shame constrains us. Shamelessness is a liberation. If you learn to be absolutely shameless – even shameless about your shamelessness, you grant yourself the ultimate dream come true, a reliable feeling of perfect freedom and perfect invincibility, as though you can do anything and whatever you do […]
