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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: Another SR climate change prediction, unfortunately a sad one, has come to pass, as this report describes. The melting of the Himalayan glaciers is first going to cause flooding damage and death, and then leave people with inadequate water. How serious can this get? One point four billion people depend on the Himalayan hydrography, and millions within a few decades will be migrating away from where they are now, into central China and India., causing massive social disruption, and inevitable violence. This may all seem very far away, but that is not the way to see this. It is these internal migrations, and the United States is going to experience three climate change internal migrations, away from the coasts, out of the Southwest, and out of the Central states, that are going to be one of the most notable results of climate change.
People walk past a destroyed dam after a Himalayan glacier broke and crashed into the dam at Raini Chak Lata village in Chamoli district, northern state of Uttarakhand, India, February 7, 2021. Credit: Reuters/Stringer
NEW DELHI, INDIA – Around 125 people were missing in northern India after a Himalayan glacier broke and swept away a small hydroelectric dam on Sunday, with floods forcing the evacuation of villages downstream.
A wall of dust, rock and water hit as an avalanche roared down the Rishiganga valley deep in the mountains of Uttarakhand, a witness said.-
“It came very fast, there was no time to alert anyone,” Sanjay Singh Rana, who lives on the upper reaches of the river in Raini village, told Reuters by phone. “I felt that even we would be swept away.”
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said 125 people were missing but the number could rise. So far, the bodies of seven people had been recovered.
The disaster took place around 500 km (310 miles) north of New Delhi.
Uttarakhand is prone to flash floods and landslides and the disaster prompted calls by […]
Stephan: It seems everything Trump touched as President either failed, was corrupted, or handled incompetently. It is amazing to me that so few people seem to recognize this factual reality. It is going to take years for the country to recover. Take the trade deficit as but one example proving what I am saying.
Grifter Trump
The U.S. trade deficit over the four years of President Donald Trump’s presidency soared to its highest level since 2008, despite his tough tariff tactics intended to bring it down, a new Commerce Department report showed on Friday.
The combined U.S. goods and services trade deficit increased to $679 billion in 2020, compared to $481 billion in 2016, the year before Trump took office. The trade deficit in goods alone hit $916 billion, a record high and an increase of about 21 percent from 2016.
Trump failed in one of his major trade policy goals because the U.S. trade deficit is driven more by macroeconomic factors, like how much a country spends and saves, than it is by tariffs and foreign trade practices, analysts said.
“The Trump administration never had a feasible plan for reducing the trade deficit,” explained Mary Lovely, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “Their 2017 tax cut ensured that the U.S. as a whole would continue to spend more than it produced, hence the need for a current account […]
Toluse Olorunnipa and Michelle Ye Hee Lee, - Washington Post
Stephan: $519 million and still counting. All this resulting from the Trumpian insurrection, and now being paid for by you and me. As I read this story all I could think about is how many children with food insecurity could have been fed paid for with that money. Trump is gone but the wounds he inflicted on the country will take years to heal.
Plastic covers a statue that has what appears to be blood at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, District of Columbia on January 7, 2021. Trump supporters breached the building and damaged statues and others parts of the building. Credit: Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post
President Donald Trump’s onslaught of falsehoods about the November election misled millions of Americans, undermined faith in the electoral system, sparked a deadly riot — and has now left taxpayers with a large, and growing, bill.
The total so far: $519 million.
The costs have mounted daily as government agencies at all levels have been forced to devote public funds to respond to actions taken by Trump and his supporters, according to a Washington Post review of local, state and federal spending records, as well as interviews with government officials. The expenditures include legal fees prompted by dozens of fruitless lawsuits, enhanced security in response to death threats against poll workers, and costly repairs needed after the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol. That attack triggered the expensive massing of thousands of National Guard troops on […]
Stephan: If you shop at Costco you have probably bought a Costco $4.99 chicken. Ronlyn and I have certainly done so. But no more. Read this story and make up your own mind.
Costco chickenCredit: Sibeko/Reuters
Probably like many of you, I think of Costco as an enlightened company exemplifying capitalism that works. One ranking listed it as the No. 1 company to work at in terms of pay and benefits — a prime example of a business that is both profitable and humane.
Unless, it turns out, you’re a chicken.
Rotisserie chickens selling for just $4.99 each are a Costco hallmark, both delicious and cheap. They are so popular they have their own Facebook page, and the company sells almost 100 million of them a year. But an animal rights group called Mercy for Animals recently sent an investigator under cover to work on a farm in Nebraska that produces millions of these chickens for Costco, and customers might lose their appetite if they saw inside a chicken barn.
“It’s dimly lit, with chicken poop all over,” said the worker, who also secretly shot video there. “It’s like a hot humid cloud of ammonia and poop mixed together.”
Stephan: On 20 March 1854, in Ripon, Wisconsin, former members of the Whig Party opposed to the extension of slavery into the Western territories, gathered to found what they called the Grand Old Party, known today as the GOP or Republican Party. Two months later they gathered again in Jackson, Michigan to choose their first candidates for statewide office. In 1860 the new party was able to win the presidency, in the person of Abraham Lincoln, by which time seven southern states led by the remnants of Whig Party had already seceded beginning the process that became the Civil War.
As this report describes, we may be about to see a similar cataclysmic political change as the Republican Party schisms largely for the same reasons it was created in the first place -- White supremacy racism.
On CNN Saturday, former Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA), a Trump-skeptic conservative who endorsed President Joe Biden, said that Republicans in his circle are debating forming an entirely new conservative party and abandoning the GOP to the far right.
“What are Republican leaders telling you about the trajectory of the party?” asked anchor Fredricka Whitfield.
“It’s not good right now. I think everybody understands that,” said Dent. “In fact, just yesterday I participated in a forum or a summit where we talked about the future of the party, should there be a new party or a new faction. A new faction within the party or one that operates independently of the party? That’s the conversation that many Republicans are having, and we’re united around core principles like democracy, rule of law, measured statements, and we’re against cronyism and this type of ugly populism that we’ve witnessed the last four years under President Trump and folks like [Rep.]Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).”Tired of ads? Want to support our progressive journalism? Click to learn more.
“So it sounds like there’s a consideration of surrendering the party to a fringe element?” said Whitfield.
Stephan: Yesterday I did a story on a growing attempt by Republican state legislators, in a blatantly racist move, to limit the ability of non-Whites to vote. This is part of what is beginning to look like a permanent schism in the GOP. If you live in a state governed by Republicans and are a person of color the Republican Party is trying to cut off your access to democracy. In fact, many Republicans at both the state and national level see democracy as a. threat. Race struggles in the Whig Party are what created the Republican Party and ironically, race is what may split the party again.
Within about 20 years the United States will be a majority-minority nation and, at the same time, male dominance will no longer be culturally acceptable. Whites will no longer be the majority race, and men will no longer be deferred to simply because of their gender. For many Whites, particularly White males, this is simply unacceptable, and that is the reason the Trump base exists and will continue even though Trump is no longer in office. Trump, as I have said many times, has always been a symptom more than a cause.
Gwinnett County election workers handle ballots as part of the recount for the 2020 presidential election at the Beauty P. Baldwin Voter Registrations and Elections Building on November 16, 2020 in Lawrenceville, Georgia. Credit: Megan Varner/Getty
Since former President Donald Trump failed to reverse the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, Republicans in more than two dozen states have introduced over 100 bills to restrict voting access, an alarming development that voting rights advocates have pointed to as yet another reason for Democrats to abolish the filibuster, an anti-democratic tool currently allowing the GOP minority to block the enactment of a suite of popular pro-democracy reforms.
Mother Jones journalist Ari Berman on Thursday reported on the GOP’s ongoing nationwide push to make voting more difficult—particularly for communities of color and other Democratic-leaning constituencies—and in some cases to empower state legislatures to overturn election results. He called state-level Republicans’ efforts “a huge scandal that should be getting as much attention as Trump’s plot to overturn the election.”
“Republicans are taking their assault on voting rights to the next level… trying to accomplish through legislation […]
Stephan: A few days ago I published a piece about General Motors committing to converting all their vehicles from petroleum power to electricity. Now here is more good news, this time from Ford. The transition out of the carbon power era is well underway.
All-electric Ford F-150 Credit: Car and Driver
Ford plans to invest $22 billion in vehicle electrification through 2025, an amount that’s nearly double its prior plans, the company said.
Why it matters: The announcement is the latest sign of how the world’s biggest carmakers are pouring more resources into tech that’s still a tiny slice of the auto market.
“We are accelerating all our plans — breaking constraints, increasing battery capacity, improving costs and getting more electric vehicles into our product cycle plan,” CEO Jim Farley said in a statement Thursday evening.
The intrigue: Ford’s move comes as domestic rival GM is getting more aggressive with its EV plans and now aspires to stop selling internal combustion cars, SUVs and pickups by 2035.
What they’re saying: Wedbush Securities analysts, in a note about the Ford effort, said there’s an “EV arms race” underway.
The note cites GM’s plans, reports that Apple will work with Hyundai on an electric car, new Ford investment targets, Tesla’s expansion and more.
“We believe this speaks to…a golden age of EVs on the horizon with a green tidal wave expected in the […]
Stephan: Here is another new technology offering another option to petroleum. It is going to be very interesting to see how the post-carbon era shapes up. I don't think it is quite clear yet.
This sludgy gray goop is a clean, high-density, safe and easily transportable hydrogen energy fuel called Powerpaste Credit: Fraunhofer
Fraunhofer researchers have presented a magnesium-based “Powerpaste” that stores hydrogen energy at 10 times the density of a lithium battery, offering hydrogen fuel cell vehicles the ability to travel further than gasoline-powered ones, and refuel in minutes.
Typically, of course, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles carry their H2 fuel in gaseous form, stored in tanks at pressures around 700 bar (10,150 psi). These tanks are fairly large and heavy, which counteracts one of hydrogen’s key advantages over today’s lithium batteries – its higher energy density. The high pressures involved also make hydrogen an impractical option for powered two-wheelers like motorcycles and scooters.
But a team based at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials IFAM in Dresden have come up with an interesting new way to store and carry hydrogen energy, in the form of a magnesium hydride-based “Powerpaste” that stores the hydrogen in a chemical form, at atmospheric pressure, ready for release when needed.
To produce the paste, magnesium is combined with […]
