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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.
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 […]
Stephan: I have been very struck by the change in the tone of the White House in the Biden administration. For starters, the Press Secretary is no longer a shoddy daily liar; she tells the truth. We are nearly two months into the new administration and there hasn't been a single scandal. Two months into the last administration there were so many scandals, crimes, and corruption reports, it was hard to keep them all straight. And, because, Biden is actually committed to fostering wellbeing the entire process of governance throughout the government has taken on a different tone. Here's the story.
President Joe Biden prefers to hold meetings in the Oval Office sitting in an armchair next to the fireplace. He often has a slim leather briefing book at his elbow and sometimes balances a slender card on his knee while he’s talking, to reference figures and key points he wants to make.
It’s quite a contrast to the previous four years, when former President Donald Trump held court in the room from behind the oak timbers of the Resolute Desk, shooting off unpredictable, unscripted comments and belittling rivals as the cameras rolled. The desk was often bare, save a secure telephone and a red button he could press to order a Diet Coke. (“Do you want something to drink, folks?” Trump asked TIME reporters when he pushed the button on his desk during an Oval Office interview in June 2019. A drink arrived, but just for him.) In the waning weeks of Trump’s presidency, the room became a clearinghouse for fake conspiracies and lies that massive voter fraud cost Trump the election. (It didn’t.)
Peter S. Goodman, Alexandra Stevenson, Niraj Chokshi and Michael Corkery, - The New York Times
Stephan: Do you think about shipping containers frequently, at all? Do you see them as a critical factor in your own wellbeing? You should. And you should also recognize that the pandemic is causing massive change in many of the fundamentals of civilization. This report describes the trend that is so profoundly affecting global shipping, Until now I have only seen it mentioned in the professional literature but, with this article, it will move into mass consciousness. I think everyone should be prepared for more of these stories, and to realize that this pandemic and climate change are going to profoundly change every society whatever the culture.
The Port of Los Angeles, the main port of entry for goods from Asia, has seen significant congestion in the pandemic. Credit: Coley Brown/The New York Times
Off the coast of Los Angeles, more than two dozen container ships filled with exercise bikes, electronics and other highly sought imports have been idling for as long as two weeks.
In Kansas City, farmers are struggling to ship soybeans to buyers in Asia. In China, furniture destined for North America piles up on factory floors.
Around the planet, the pandemic has disrupted trade to an extraordinary degree, driving up the cost of shipping goods and adding a fresh challenge to the global economic recovery. The virus has thrown off the choreography of moving cargo from one continent to another.
At the center of the storm is the shipping container, the workhorse of globalization.
Americans stuck in their homes have set off a surge of orders from factories in China, much of it carried across the Pacific in containers — the metal boxes that move goods in towering stacks atop enormous vessels. As households in the […]
Stephan: Another Republican lie is proven by data to be just that, a lie. These endless lies and fantasies believed by millions have left our democracy in a very fragile condition. It is hard to have a democracy based on a two-party system when one of those parties does not want to have a democracy and is doing everything it can to subvert democracy.
Workers count ballots in Portland. Those findings challenge the conventional wisdom that has emerged after Joe Biden’s victory in November that the Democrats benefited from mail-in votes. Credit: Paula Bronstein/AP
States that required an excuse to vote by mail saw increases in turnout similar to those that did not, the researchers from Stanford found. In Texas, where only voters ages 65 and up can vote by mail without an excuse, Democratic turnout did not “substantially increase” relative to Republican turnout.
“Despite the extraordinary circumstances of the 2020 election, vote-by-mail’s effect on turnout and on partisan outcomes is very muted,” the researchers wrote. “Voter interest appears to be far more important in driving turnout.”
Those findings challenge the conventional wisdom that has emerged after Joe Biden’s victory in November. Republicans […]
Stephan: If anyone ever tells you that they support nuclear energy just say two words, Fukushima and Chernobyl. When nuclear goes bad, it goes bad and is lethally dangerous for... no one actually knows, decades, centuries.
Storage tanks for contaminated water at the Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which was badly damaged in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Credit: Philip Fong/AFP/Getty
TOKYO — Beside the ruins of theFukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, more than 1,000 huge metal tanks loom in silent testament to one of the worst nuclear disasters in history, the meltdown of three nuclear reactors 10 years ago this month.
The tanks contain nearly 1.25million tons of cooling water from the 2011 disaster and groundwater seepage over the years — equivalent to around 500 Olympic-size swimming pools — most of it still dangerously radioactive.
Running out of space to build more tanks, the government wants to gradually release the water into the sea — after it has been decontaminated and diluted — over the next three decades or more.
Even though a formal decision has yet to be announced, the government and the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) have insisted that an ocean release is their preferred solution and that it is perfectly safe.
The only thing holding them back appears to be […]
