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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: Everything eventually comes out. Every day Trump and his minions look worse, more corrupt, more criminal. The question now is accountability. If people are not held accountable then that will set the standard in the future, and corruption will be engineered into American government.
Putin on Russian television
Lost in the news on the day of Trump’s Insurrection was a devastating new watchdog report to Congress on the politicizing and distorting of intelligence during Donald Trump’s time in office.
The analytic ombudsman, career intelligence community veteran Barry A. Zulauf, determined that under Trump national intelligence reports had become highly politicized. Important findings were suppressed to appease Trump’s refusal to acknowledge Russian interference in American elections.
Zulauf’s unclassified report paints a frightening picture of just how much the Trump administration skewed intelligence to suppress knowledge of interference by Russia in our 2020 elections.
From March 2020, in the critical months leading up to the elections, Zulauf “identified a long story arc of—at the very least—perceived politicization of intelligence.”
Barry A. Zulauf
Zulauf works in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), a Cabinet-level position created after the 9/11 terrorist attacks to oversee all U.S. intelligence operations. Zulauf’s job within the ODNI was created by Congress to assist analysts throughout the intelligence community with complaints […]
Stephan: Yet another story about the almost grotesque structure of American healthcare. Hospitals throughout the Red value rural states desperate to get physicians on staff. Inner cities throughout the country with woefully inadequate healthcare facilities, or even private practitioners. And yet... well, read the story.
Dr. Kristy Cromblin of Pratville, Ala.: “I’ve had to encourage myself over and over: I am worth it. I am useful. I am damn good.”Credit: Charity Rachelle for The New York Times
Dr. Kristy Cromblin knew that as the descendant of Alabama sharecroppers and the first person in her family to go to college, making it to medical school might seem like an improbable dream. Her parents watched in proud disbelief as she inched closer to that goal, enrolling in a medical school in Barbados and enlisting in the military with plans to serve one day as a flight surgeon.
Then came an unexpected hurdle: A contentious divorce led Dr. Cromblin to take seven years away from medical school to care for her two sons. In 2012, she returned for her final year, excited to complete her exams and apply for residency, the final step in her training.
But no one had told Dr. Cromblin that hospital residency programs, which have been flooded with a rising number of applications in recent years, sometimes use the Electronic Residency Application Service software […]
Stephan: When I was a young futurist back in the late 1960s and early 70s, the big concern was over-population.
Biologist Paul Ehrlich, Bing Professor of Population Studies and Professor of Biological Sciences at Stanford University, and one of the icons of the environmental and population movements is one example. In a 1969 Ramparts magazine article “Eco-Catastrophe!” Ehrlich predicted, among other misses, that the oceans would be dead from DDT poisoning by 1979, US life expectancy would drop to 42 years by 1980 as the result of pesticide-induced cancers, and the US population would decline to under 23 million by 1999.10 In his 1974 book, The End of Affluence, Ehrlich saw the President dissolving Congress “during the food riots of the 1980s,” and suggested that because of these food shortages, the United States would feel compelled to use agricultural poisons to such an extent, causing so much damage to the environment, that a horrified world might launch a nuclear attack on the United States to stop Ameri- can pesticide pollution.11 Pretty scary stuff; and, oh yes— dead wrong.
Here is another confirmation that over-population is not going to be the defining issue envisioned 50 years ago.
Men’s average sperm counts are down globally and testosterone levels have plunged, while erectile dysfunction is, cruelly, on the rise. Credit: NY Post composite
Sperm counts in Western countries have dropped by more than 50 percent since the 1970s. At the same time, men’s problems with conceiving are going up: Erectile dysfunction is increasing and testosterone levels are declining by 1 percent each year.
“The current state of reproductive affairs can’t continue much longer without threatening human survival,” warns Mount Sinai fertility scientist Dr. Shanna Swan in her book, “Count Down” (Scribner), out Tuesday. “It’s a global existential crisis.”
Dr. Swan should know — she’s been researching fertility for thirty years. She studied a miscarriage boom in Santa Clara, Calif., in the 1980s, which she eventually linked to toxic waste dumped into the drinking water by a local semiconductor plant. She moved on to sperm rates in 1997 and they’ve been her “canary in a coal mine scenario” since. In 2017, she sounded the alarm with a meta-analysis of 40,000 men that showed that sperm count fell […]
RICHARD WIKE, JANELL FETTEROLF and CHRISTINE HUANG, - Pew Research Center
Stephan: Here is some lovely good news. After four years of general European loathing for Trump and declining respect and affection for the United States, under Biden matters have returned to the previous norm under Obama.
Throughout his presidency, Donald Trump was broadly unpopular internationally, and his poor ratings have had a negative impact on America’s overall image, especially among key allies and partners of the United States. By contrast, early reviews for his successor, President-elect Joe Biden, are much more positive, according to a new Pew Research Center survey in France, Germany and the United Kingdom. People in all three countries express confidence in Biden and optimism that relations with the U.S. will improve now that he is moving into the White House.
Large majorities in Germany (79%), France (72%) and the UK (65%) say they have confidence in Biden to do the right thing in world affairs – a dramatic change from the low ratings Trump received in a survey conducted in the summer of 2020 in these three nations. As he prepares to begin his presidency, Biden’s ratings are only slightly lower than the ratings Barack Obama received near the end of his second term.
Large majorities also say that, when thinking of the future of their country, they are optimistic about […]
Stephan: If you read me regularly you know about the plastic waste crisis that plagues the world. Well here is a possible solution, for at least some of it, and it was invented by an African woman! Bravo. This is just a wonderful story and a trend changer.
Nzambi Matee told reporters she was “tired of being on the sidelines,” and decided to create a solution of her own for commercial plastic waste. Credit: Gjenge Makers Ltd.
Nzambi Matee is an entrepreneur with an incredible goal — to turn plastic destined for the landfill into sustainable, strong building material. Her company, Gjenge Makers, uses the plastic waste of commercial facilities to create bricks that can withstand twice the weight threshold of concrete.
Gjenge Makers is based in Nairobi, Kenya, where plastic waste pollution has become a severe problem. A study supported by the National Environmental Management Agency (NEMA) found that more than 50% of cattle near urban areas in Kenya had plastic in their stomachs. To combat this issue, the Kenyan government outlawed the use of plastic bags in 2017, and imposed a ban on all single-use plastic in protected natural areas last year. However, these bans only address the issue of consumer single-use plastic. Commercial waste is still a deep-seated problem within the country.
Stephan: Over the last few days, I have been thinking about what medicine, and medical schools, have learned from this pandemic, and began looking for research that would answer this question. Here is the best general audience piece I have found so far, and it is a good news story. I am beginning to think that between what the medical establishment has learned, and what Biden is committed to doing we may finally see a change that is oriented towards fostering wellbeing, not just making profit from illness.
Geisinger’s Dr. Anthony Wylie and student Kaiya Flemons, at screen bottom, pay a virtual house call to a Pennsylvania patient. Photo-illustration by Eva O’Leary for TIME
In February 2019, the Kaiser Permanente health system announced a new kind of medical school. The school would be built “from the ground up” to prepare students for the complexities of the U.S. medical system. The curriculum would emphasize cultural competency, patient and provider well-being, and the elimination of socioeconomic disparities in the medical system. Students would see patients right away, and hands-on learning would replace many lectures. What’s more, the first five graduating classes would pay nothing to attend; Kaiser hoped this would attract a student body more diverse than the typical U.S. medical school.
“The school will help shape the future of medical education,” promised Kaiser CEO Bernard Tyson, who died unexpectedly, reportedly of a heart attack, about nine months after the announcement.
That future felt a good deal more urgent by the time the Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine opened its doors in Pasadena, Calif., […]
Stephan: When I look at Texas and listen to the news reports covering what is going on there, what I see is a state governed for the past two decades by Republicans and Republican policies. It seems abundantly clear to me that once again those policies have produced wealth for rich investors, and corporations, and an unmitigated disaster for ordinary Americans. Based on facts, not ideology it should be obvious that Republicans by plan and choice do not govern to produce wellbeing, and those states governed by Republicans consistently do worse than those governed by Democrats. If you vote Republican you are voting to produce misery in your life.
Some Texans have received devastating electric bills after a winter storm inflated the price of electricity. Here, snow covers the ground of a neighborhood school in Waco, Texas as severe winter weather conditions over the last few days has forced road closures and power outages over the state on February 17, 2021.MATTHEW BUSCH/GETTY
Across Texas, some residents are facing devastating electric charges worth thousands of dollars, after a week of power outages and severe winter weather inflated the price of electricity.
Among Texans who use wholesale electric providers, which fluctuates based on real-time market changes and can skyrocket during times of scarcity, some customers are seeing bills as high as $14,000.
Scott Willoughby, a resident of Royce City, Texas, told NBC 5 that he owes the power company Griddy $13,926.89 for the month February.
“It would take almost all of my savings if I were to pay that bill,” Willoughby told the news outlet.
He said he signed up for Griddy, a wholesale provider, after moving into a new home in November. Griddy members pay a $9.99 monthly fee and then pay the direct cost of the electricity on Texas’s power grid based on the time of day […]
Stephan: As Republicans realize people are leaving their party in droves, and in any case, they are doomed to be a permanent minority on racial terms, they are attempting with increasing ferocity to rig democracy with gerrymandering and voter suppression tactics. And, as this article lays out, it is going to get worse before it gets better. What is the solution? Vote Republicans out of all office at every level.
The next round of congressional redistricting is shaping up to be a mess, beset by even more complications and lawsuits than usual.
Why it matters: This process will likely help Republicans pick up seats in the House in 2022. Beyond that, though, the pandemic and the Trump administration’s handling of the Census have made this round of redistricting especially fraught — and states will be locked into the results for a decade.
Huge states with diversifying and expanding populations — including Texas, Florida and North Carolina — will likely feel some of the most significant impacts.
Census delays are a big part of the problem this year. The Census Bureau announced last week that it will not release the data states use to draw their legislative maps until the end of September — months later than the usual springtime release.
That gives states less time to draw maps, get feedback, resolve the ensuing lawsuits and enact their new plans in time for elections.
In Ohio, for example, two deadlines for the state’s brand-new process will already have passed by […]
