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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 infiltration of law enforcement and the military by MAGA racists is something that should concern all of us. This is straight out of the Nazis playbook, and since 1860, and the civil war, this has never before been a serious issue. However, the number of active duty and veteran police and military in the 6th January insurrection, in my opinion, should be seen as a wake-up call, warning us about what is happening. Along with the transition of the civilian Republican party, this incursion of MAGA racists into the police and military threatens the democracy that has historically been the foundation of America.
The agency’s San Antonio branch said right-wing extremists sought to join law enforcement and the military in an effort to ‘further’ their ideologies
Their findings were based on investigations from 2016 to 2020 and were first reported by ABC who had access to a leaked copy of the report
The February 25 report says white supremacists would ‘likely seek affiliation with military and law enforcement entities in furtherance of’ their ideas
FBI Director Christopher Wray has labeled the Capitol riot ‘domestic terrorism’
He said the number of arrests of white supremacists has almost tripled
A Pentagon report released last Tuesday also warned that domestic extremist groups pose a serious threat to the military
That said they seek to recruit service members into their ranks and, in some cases, join the military to acquire combat experience
White supremacists are trying to join the ranks of law enforcement and the military so they can ‘terrorize minorities’ and ‘initiate a collapse of society’, the FBI has warned.
The agency’s San Antonio branch said right-wing extremists sought to join the two in an effort to ‘further’ their ideologies.
Their findings were based on investigations from 2016 to 2020 and […]
Stephan: The other big trend that concerns me is the transformation of Christianity from a religion in which adherents sought to live by Jesus' guidance into a cult that talks Bible, but actually personifies White Supremacist fascism. Were Jesus to actually come back he would find American White Christianity to be everything he preached against.
Then Vice President Mike Pence delivers remarks at the Christians United for Israel Washington Summit in Washington, D.C. Monday, July 8, 2019. Credit: D. Myles Cullen/Official White House
The findings in the report titled, “Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World,” were compiled by authors Andrew L. Whitehead and Samuel L. Perry. While they noted that race does have a significant impact on the attitude toward vaccinations, they emphasized that race may be a secondary issue compared to the “modern-day anti-vaccine movement.”
“We propose that a particular ideological view unites many of these patterns to shape contemporary anti-vaccination (often called anti-vaxx) sentiment in the United States,” they wrote. In the assessment, they offered a breakdown of the anti-vaccine skepticism and how it relates to Americans with vetted interests and beliefs in Christianity, conservative politics, and antiscience.
“Although the anti-vaccine skepticism of racial minorities has its own unique sources in the historical abuses […]
Stephan: I have been writing about this since the 1990s, and the migrations it will produce. No country is propering preparing for this. Last year I wrote a chapter for a book, City Preparedness for the Climate Crisis about this, if you're interested in my thinking about climate change and migration you can go to Academia.edu or Researchgate.com and search on my name, then search on "migration". This is going to become an enormous problem all over the world, and we are not properly preparing.
Research was centered on latitudes found between 20 degrees north, a line that cuts throughMexico, Libya and India, to 20 degrees south. Credit: Noah Seelam/AFP/Getty
Should governments fail to curb global heating to 1.5C above the pre-industrial era, areas in the tropical band that stretches either side of the equator risk changing into a new environment that will hit “the limit of human adaptation”, the study warns.
Humans’ ability to regulate their body heat is dependent upon the temperature and humidity of the surrounding air. We have a core body temperature that stays relatively stable at 37C (98.6F), while our skin is cooler to allow heat to flow away from the inner body. But should the wet-bulb temperature – a measure of air temperature and humidity […]
Stephan: Good news. Another of Biden's Trump reversals, this one will save millions of birds. Bravo. But the position of the corporations who sought the Trump position should not be forgotten. This regulation is needed to control the greed and unconsciousness of individuals and corporations, and they haven't changed.
The Biden administration delayed a rule that gutted protections for migratory birds from taking effect last month, and the Interior Department says it will issue a new proposal “in the coming days” to revoke the Trump rule altogether. Credit: Danny Lehman/Getty
The Biden administration on Monday scrapped a controversial Trump-era legal opinion that gutted protections for hundreds of species of migratory birds.
In December 2017, Daniel Jorjani, then the top lawyer at the Department of the Interior and a former longtime adviser to the fossil fuel mogul Koch brothers, issued an interpretation of the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) that effectively legalized all unintentional migratory bird deaths, including those caused by chemical spills, oil and gas operations, power lines and wind turbines.
Jorjani argued that the law was only meant to prohibit the intentional hunting, capturing or killing of bird species, and that as long as a company or individual does not mean to kill birds, they are protected from prosecution.
The move broke from decades of legal precedent, opened the door for gross negligence and dropped incentives for the industry to proactively […]
Donald Judd and Devan Cole, CNN White House Producer | News Reporter - CNN
Stephan: Excellent good news. While the Republicans are doing everything they can to limit voting, particularly voting by Black or Brown voters, Biden is working to asssure those same people, all people, can vote.
President Joe Biden signed an executive order Sunday expanding voting access in what the White House calls “an initial step” in its efforts to “protect the right to vote and ensure all eligible citizens can freely participate in the electoral process.”The move comes as Republicans in statehouses around the country work to advance voter suppression legislation, including a bill in Georgia that voting rights groups say targets Black voters. Congressional Democrats, meanwhile, have pushed measures in recent days to increase voting rights, including HR1 — a sweeping ethics and election package that contains provisions expanding early and mail-in voting, restoring voting rights to former felons, and easing voter registration for eligible Americans.MORE ON VOTING RIGHTS
Stephan: I had the same reaction as the Brits, but that is my regular response. MSNBC, CNN, and Fox all seem to depend on drug ads to a disproportionate degree for advertising income. Note, as this report does, that in Europe and the UK where the healthcare systems are based on fostering wellbeing not making maximum profit you just don't see the endless drug ads. And it is particularly weird because as you listen to the cautions about side effects, many including death, you have to ask, who would take such a drug?
As documented by Ayesha Siddiqi on Twitter, many Britons were stunned that Americans are constantly subjected to advertisements for prescription drugs that include lengthy lists of incredibly hazardous side effects.
The United Kingdom, which for decades has enjoyed the socialized medicine provided by the country’s National Health Service, does not have ads for prescription drugs, as medicine in the country is strictly a not-for-profit affair.
Stephan: Social outcome data -- real facts, as opposed to fantasies or ideology -- is the product of scientific research measuring the effects of choices made by public officials who are put into office by voters. It is a measurement of how democracy works and is supposed to work. So here we have yet another proof about the inferior nature of Republican governance, and a case study in how what you vote for shapes your life. QED.
Mass murderer Donald Trump
The 100 U.S. counties with the highest death rates from COVID-19 voted for former President Donald Trump by 18 points, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
The data below comes from the GitHub data repositories of Johns Hopkins University, except for Utah, which comes from the GitHub data of the New York Times due to JHU not breaking the state out by county but by “region” for some reason.
Important:
Every county except those in Alaska lists the 2020 Biden/Trump partisan lean; Alaska still uses the 2016 Clinton/Trump results (the 2020 Alaska results are only available by state legislative district, not by county/borough for some reason…if anyone has that info let me know)
I define a “Swing District” as one where the difference between Biden & Trump was less than 6.0%. FWIW, there’s just 187 swing districts (out of over 3,100 total), with around 33.7 million Americans out of 332 million total, or roughly 10.2% of the U.S. population.
For the U.S. territories, Puerto Rico only includes the case breakout, not deaths, which are unavailable […]
Stephan: Yesterday I ran a story on how the Texas electric power crisis was turned into a corporate profit grab. Now, today, we have the second chapter of that story. Yet another proof of the inferior nature of Republican governance. It is just so obvious I don't understand why people don't get it, but they don't. Hope you people in Texas are happy with who and what you voted for.
Texas Senate committee tries to understand what happened in Texas power crisis
About $16 billion in overcharges for wholesale electricity racked up because of a pricing error during the massive failure of the state’s power grid last month won’t be reversed, after Texas utility regulators rejected a recommendation that they make the change.
“It’s just nearly impossible to unscramble this sort of egg,” Arthur D’Andrea, the new chair of the Public Utility Commission, said during a commission meeting Friday.
Potomac Economics, a Virginia-based firm that’s paid by the state to provide an arm’s-length assessment of the Texas power grid, recommended Thursday in a letter to the commission that the overcharges — which were billed to retail electric providers, distributors and others — be reversed by retroactively lowering wholesale electricity prices for a 32-hour period beginning Feb. 18.
The overcharges occurred because the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which oversees the grid and is commonly known as ERCOT, kept the prices at the maximum level allowable — $9,000 per megawatt hour — during the 32-hour period. ERCOT should have stopped intervening by then because the power crisis […]
