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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 United States' Congress at this time has an unusually high number vulgar, corrupt, vile individuals. Here are twelve who voted against medals for the people who protected them. Really. They are that bad. Oh, and don't forget 172 Republicans voted against the Violence Against Women Act. Yes, really, they did.
Andy Biggs, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Louie Gohmert Credit: Salon/Getty
A dozen House Republicans on Wednesday voted against awarding Congressional medals to police departments that protected them during the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
The House voted 413-12 to award Congressional Gold Medals to the Capitol Police and D.C. Metro Police, as well as a third medal for the Smithsonian Institution to display in honor of other law enforcement agencies that assisted in response to the Capitol attack. The bill was scheduled for a vote last week but some Republicans used procedural measures to delay the vote. The resolution now heads to the Senate, which already voted to award a Congressional Gold Medal to Officer Eugene Goodman, who led rioters away from the Senate chamber.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., lashed out at Republicans who opposed the bill, accusing them of trying to “erase the events of January 6 and deny the responsibility of a far-right, insurrectionist mob incited by former President Trump.”
The 12 GOP members who voted no featured an all-star cast of far-right Trump supporters: Andy Biggs of Arizona, Marjorie Taylor […]
Stephan: This won't get much if any attention at the national level, but I am running it because it is yet another proof that to rise in the Republican Party, on the basis of the evidence, you have to be a racist, a grifter, or a christofascist or all three. Kobach was the Secretary of State of Kansas and part of the team that did so much damage to the state.
In a conversation for the Kansas Reflector podcast, former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach says he is confident the reshaped U.S. Supreme Court will approve of his requirement that new voters show a birth certificate before registering. Credit: Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector
NEW YORK, NEW YORK — In early October, Kris Kobach, Kansas’ former Secretary of State, and Daniel Drake, a Wichita-based venture capitalist-turned-CEO, made a sales pitch to Kansas legislators. The duo wheeled in what looked to lawmakers like a “refrigerator” — a shiny metal box Drake called a “revolutionary” device that would “kill COVID” and bring “several hundred jobs back to Wichita.”
This project was a collaboration between the Kansas Reflector and Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. The students who led this reporting were part of a fall investigative journalism program, which is part of the Masters of Science degree at the journalism school. Questions about the reporting can […]
Stephan: The data is unimpeachable: if the United States Had a Civilized health care system instead of an illness profit greed system hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens would still be alive. Is that clear enough for you? Don't you think it is time for America to join the rest of the civilized world and create a universal birthright single-payer system, Medicare for all?
Registered nurses conduct a demonstration in Lafayette Park to read aloud names of healthcare providers who have contracted Covid-19 and died as a result of treating infected patients on Tuesday, April 21, 2020. Credit: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call/Getty
A new report released Tuesday morning by consumer advocacy group Public Citizen makes the case that the United States’ fragmented for-profit healthcare system hampered the nation’s coronavirus response “at every turn,” resulting in millions of Covid-19 infections and hundreds of thousands of deaths that likely would have been prevented under a Medicare for All system.
, - OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE
Stephan: Read this. What do you conclude? Here is the truth as I see it. America has a White male problem, and it is very serious. Almost all of this domestic violence variously centers on some combination of White supremacy, christofascism, or male dominance. But the one virtual universal is it always involves White males. Something is deeply wrong with American culture, and it is time to talk about it and fix it.
Executive Summary (U) The IC assesses that domestic violent extremists (DVEs) who are motivated by a range of ideologies and galvanized by recent political and societal events in the United States pose an elevated threat to the Homeland in 2021. Enduring DVE motivations pertaining to biases against minority populations and perceived government overreach will almost certainly continue to drive DVE radicalization and mobilization to violence. Newer sociopolitical developments—such as narratives of fraud in the recent general election, the emboldening impact of the violent breach of the US Capitol, conditions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and conspiracy theories promoting violence—will almost certainly spur some DVEs to try to engage in violence this year. (U) The IC assesses that lone offenders or small cells of DVEs adhering to a diverse set of violent extremist ideologies are more likely to carry out violent attacks in the Homeland than organizations that allegedly advocate a DVE ideology. DVE attackers often radicalize independently by consuming violent extremist material online and mobilize without direction from a violent extremist organization, making detection and disruption difficult. (U) The IC assesses that racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists (RMVEs) and militia violent extremists (MVEs) […]
Stephan: Donald Trump is a mass murderer. He didn't pull the trigger, but he created the circumstance that led his followers to do the deed. "China Virus." "Wuhan virus." "Kung flu." Just the sort of inflammatory language that would stir his White male followers to violence. And that is exactly what it did.
A man holds a sign that reads “Racism is a Virus” during the “We Are Not Silent” rally against anti-Asian hate in response to recent anti-Asian crime in the Chinatown-International District of Seattle, Washington, on March 13. Credit: Jason Redmond/ Getty
Before a series of shootings in the Atlanta area this week that disproportionately targeted people of Asian descent, members of the Asian American community spent months expressing alarm that high-profile figures — including then-President Donald Trump — were inciting violence by telling Americans to blame China for the coronavirus pandemic.
Their warnings largely went unheeded. And despite Trump’s departure from office and evidence of rising violence against Asian Americans, influential voices from politicians to foreign policy experts are still speaking of an existential competition with Beijing in ways that could spur violence towards people perceived as being linked to China.
“Our community has been facing a [relentless] increase in attacks and harassment over the past year,” Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.), the chairwoman of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus,
Stephan: What is becoming ever more obvious is that President Trump, members of the right-wing media like Hannity, lawyers like Rudy Giuliani, advisors like Michael Flynn, as well as Senators like Ron Johnson, and Representatives like Devin Nunes were all explicitly essentially Russian assets working against the interests of the United States. To me they are traitors and I am amazed that at this point, with the exception of Flynn who was pardoned by Trump, none are being held to account for their actions and words. Apparently, you can commit treason in this country with impunity if you are rich enough and well enough connected. But if you are a Black teenager with a baggie of joints in your pocket you can go to prison for years. I'm sorry, I just don't find that acceptable.
The new intelligence report revealing that Russia coordinated with President Donald Trump’s campaign for the 2020 election came as a bombshell Tuesday. While it didn’t name names, it implied Rudy Giuliani was part of the disinformation effort as well as “The key element of Moscow’s strategy this election cycle was its use of people linked to Russian intelligence to launder influence narratives, including misleading or unsubstantiated narratives against Mr. Biden through U.S. media organizations, U.S. officials and prominent U.S. individuals,” the report said. “Some of whom were close to former President Trump and his administration.”
“There’s no rest for the weary because this doesn’t stop with this,” said Frank Figliuzzi, former FBI assistant director for counterintelligence. “It will keep coming. It is the new battlefield. And then, secondly, all of the people who just regurgitated every day and every night and, by the way, still do […]
Stephan: A very important report has just been released showing once again that Putin and Trump were in league and the Russian intelligence services were doing everything they could to rig the election in Trump's favor. There are a couple of things that should be borne in mind, that are not getting much if any coverage. First, this report was prepared before the Biden administration began, and it is only now that it has been declassified. Second, there are a number of important nuances to this report showing that Russia, but not China, consciously and deliberately tried to get Trump re-elected because they had some kind of influence over him.
The full report is too long for SR, but here is the link to download all 15 pages, and I urge you to download it and read it.https://www.dni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/assessments/ICA-declass-16MAR21.pdf
What is very clear from reading the full report is that Trump knew this was happening and did nothing which, in my opinion, is an act of treason.
Two of the world’s greatest criminals hanging out together
Russian President Vladimir Putin once again attacked the United States, this time during the 2020 election cycle, in order to help President Donald Trump win re-election, according to a just released declassified report from the U.S. National Intelligence Council, which is part of the broader United States Intelligence Community (IC).
“President Putin authorized, and a range of Russian government organizations conducted, influence operations aimed at denigrating President Biden’s candidacy and the Democratic Party, supporting former President Trump, undermining public confidence in the electoral process, and exacerbating sociopolitical divisions in the U.S.,” one of the report’s key judgments reveals.
The Wall Street Journal adds “Iran carried out a multipronged covert influence operation intended to undercut Mr. Trump’s re-election chances but didn’t directly promote his rivals,” according to the report. China did not actively interfere, the report also states.
“Despite the various foreign campaigns, however, the report said there were no indications any foreign actor had attempted to alter ‘any technical aspect of the voting […]
Stephan: Wealthy fascists are funding researchers to learn how to manipulate you so that you support or vote for what they want. Here are some insights into how that is happening.
As I am writing this we, in the United States, are in the midst of a medical crisis which has killed over 4,000 people today alone reaching a total of over 400,000 dead and, as if that were not enough, we have just experienced a White supremacist, authoritarian anti-democratic insurrection assault by Trump supporters on the nation’s Capitol, an attempt goaded on by a sitting U.S. President. An attack which killed at least five people, threatened to collapse1 our democracy, and that was supported by Republican Congressional members. But as you probably know that is just part of what is going on in America.
We are also facing economic collapse, the failure of our health care system, racial animosity and violence unseen in almost half a century,2 increased police brutality,3 and a level of governmental corruption so high as to be unequaled in American history.2 All happening in the context of a growing existential climate crisis.4 The American culture over the past four years has undergone a transformation of historic proportions, one that has brought consciousness, psychology, psychiatry, and brain behavior into sharp relief. Donald Trump began his presidency with an approval rate in the forties, and on the […]
