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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: More good news from the Biden administration. It is astonishing the difference between the Biden administration's competence compared with the endless grifting, incompetence, and outright fraud that was the hallmark of the Trump administration.
Biden in office actually governing instead of whining as was the major activity of his predecessor
In another early win for organized labor, President Joe Biden on Tuesday requested that all 10 members of a key federal panel—who were appointed by his predecessor—immediately resign, and then fired the two appointees who refused to do so.
As Government Executivenoted, former President Donald Trump had stacked the Federal Service Impasses Panel (FSIP), which handles disputes between agencies and unions during collective bargaining negotiations, “with anti-labor partisans, most of whom lacked experience in labor-management relations or conflict resolution.”
Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees—which represents over 700,000 government workers and had accused the Trump appointees of improperly favoring agencies—told Bloomberg Law that “FSIP is a critical component in the federal negotiating process, and we look forward to President Biden’s future picks issuing just decisions, unencumbered by political interference.”
Although presidents have previously replaced all panel members, Bloomberg Law pointed out that Biden acted more quickly than his predecessors:
Trump dismissed all members of the FSIP in May 2017—about four months after he took office—and then […]
ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE and ACACIA CORONADO, Reporters - Associated Press
Stephan: Almost every day I see attempts by Republican legislators in Red states to impose new voter suppression legislation to keep non-Whites from voting. The Republicans realize they are a shrinking minority party and the only way they are going to be able to hold on to power is by rigging the system. That's a problem but a secondary one. The primary problem is that the voters in Red value states support what they are doing. The percentage of Americans who are White supremacy racists is appalling and perhaps the biggest crisis in the American political system.
Credit: Associated Press
AUSTIN, TEXAS — Republican lawmakers in statehouses across the country are moving swiftly to attack some of the voting methods that fueled the highest turnout for a presidential election in 50 years.
Although most legislative sessions are just getting underway, the Brennan Center for Justice, a public policy institute, has already tallied more than 100 bills in 28 states meant to restrict voting access. More than a third of those proposals are aimed at limiting mail voting, while other bills seek to strengthen voter ID requirements and registration processes, as well as allow for more aggressive means to remove people from voter rolls.
“Unfortunately, we are seeing some politicians who want to manipulate the rules of the game so that some people can participate and some can’t,” said Myrna Pérez, director of the voting rights and elections program at the Brennan Center.
The proposals are advancing not only in Texas and other traditional red states but also in such places as Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania that supported Donald Trump four years ago, only to flip […]
Stephan: This story is straight out of the Nazis past: rich fascists using their wealth to create disinformation and to influence the government. The Mercers are a particularly despicable example of the type, and as you read this story you will be appalled by what they did and how well it worked.
Bob Mercer and Rebekah Mercer Credit: Patrick McMullan/Patrick McMullan/Getty
Four years before Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., pumped his fist to a supportive mob that would soon overrun the Capitol Police and hunt lawmakers through the halls of Congress, the former Missouri attorney general needed a deep-pocketed patron. Naturally, he called on the man who helped bankroll former President Donald Trump’s rise: hedge-fund billionaire Robert Mercer, whom he would soon describe as a friend while name-dropping him to court support from far-right figures like Steve Bannon, a longtime Mercer ally. It’s unclear what came of Hawley’s meeting with Mercer, but the Club for Growth, which has received millions from the Mercer family, and the Senate Conservatives Fund, which also got Mercer donations, quickly became Hawley’s biggest financial backers, by far. Mercer’s daughter Rebekah kicked in a near-maximum donation to his 2018 Senate campaign for good measure.
While Charles Koch and his late brother David have dominated Republican fundraising in recent decades, the Mercers’ recent strategic investments in far-right candidates bought them a disproportionate level of influence in the Republican Party before culminating in an effort to subvert […]
Stephan: The Roman Catholic Church over the past few years has had to pay out billions of dollars to compensate the victims of their clergy's sexual predation. Well, you and I just paid them much of that back as the church siphoned off $3 billion of our tax dollars as pandemic aid.
Quite the Hail Mary. Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty
Here’s a maddening pandemic fact: Catholic dioceses in the U.S. and other institutions backed by the Catholic Church took more than $3 billion in taxpayer-funded government aid as part of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), according to an investigation by the Associated Press. That appears to make the Roman Catholic Church the single largest beneficiary of the emergency aid program. While availing upon taxpayer-funded payments, designed to keep small businesses afloat and employees in their jobs during economic shutdowns, the AP reports the Catholic Church was sitting on $10 billion in cash, short-term investment, and other available funds.
The financial statements of 112 dioceses showed that they—along with the churches and schools they operate—collected at least $1.5 billion in PPP funds, even though, the AP reports, most of those dioceses had enough cash reserves to operate for six months with no revenue coming in at all. The fact that the market quickly recovered—and then grew—meant that many of the dioceses relying on investment vehicles likely made money on the pandemic. The Archdiocese of Chicago, for example, had […]
Stephan: Another SR prediction is coming true, as this report spells out. Big Oil is going the way sailmakers, and carriage harness makers. Not disappearing but enormously diminished, although I think Big Oil is going to use its wealth to try to segue into dominating solar and wind generation.
A further confirmation of this transition: President Biden has committed to creating 500,000 EV charging stations and newly confirmed Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has said he is going to do everything he can to see that Biden's goal is met or surpassed. The times they are achanging, as Bob Dylan's song had it.
A total refinery in Port Arthur, Texas. Even with a dim view of the future, there are signs of a recovery in the oil industry. Credit: Brandon Thibodeaux /The New York Times
HOUSTON — Big Oil isn’t so big anymore.
Exxon Mobil, BP and other large oil companies collectively lost tens of billions of dollars last year, posting their worst performance in years and, for some companies, in decades.
The pandemic was largely to blame. It sapped demand for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel as countries and states locked down and people stayed home. But such painful years could become more commonplace as growing concerns about climate change, tighter regulations, and the rise of electric cars and trucks force a reckoning for an industry that has dominated the global economy over much of the last century. General Motors further raised the stakes for the industry last week when it said it aimed to do away with internal combustion engines and sell only electric cars by 2035.
The oil industry is slowly transitioning to a future dominated by cleaner energy. BP, […]
Hannah Denham and Andrew Ba Tran, Reporters - The Washington Post
Stephan: I find this story quite alarming. America already has a serious gun psychosis problem. How serious is this national mental illness? In 2020 19,223 people, were killed by guns, almost a 25% increase from 2019. There is no other developed nation in the world that has that level of gun death, both as an absolute number and as a percentage of population. Now gun sales are soaring into levels never before seen, which means that gun deaths are going to be going up. Here are the facts.
Firearm sales soared in January after a mob-led assault on the U.S. Capitol and the arrival of a new administration that favors tighter gun restrictions.
More than 2 million firearms were bought last month, according to The Washington Post’s analysis of federal gun background-check data. That is an 80 percent year-over-year spike and the second-highest one-month total on record.
Background checks, and sales of firearms and ammunition, have been increasing pace for months. The surge is in line with the record pace set in 2020: Nearly 23 million firearms were bought, representing a 64 percent jump year over year.
Stephan: Today we witnessed 199 House Republicans who were not willing to hold racist antisemite anti-democratic gun-obsessed Marjorie Taylor Greene accountable for what she has said, done, and advocated. The previous day they had given her a standing ovation. Why did the Republicans in the House do this? Because the people who voted those Republicans into office wanted them to. This is the cancer that is eating America from the inside.
Conspiracist Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is far more popular than Rep. Liz Cheney among Americans who align with the Republican Party, according to a new Axios-SurveyMonkey poll.
Why it matters: As the House GOP caucus is being torn over calls to yank Cheney from congressional leadership for backing Donald Trump’s second impeachment, and strip Greene from committee assignments for her baseless conspiracy theories and violent rhetoric, these findings show how strongly Trumpism continues to define most Republicans.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is much more popular with Republicans than Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the survey finds.
By the numbers: McCarthy enjoys the highest favorable versus unfavorable ratings (net favorability) of the four among Republicans, at 38%-16% (+22); followed by Greene, at 28%-18% (+10); McConnell, at 31%-46% (-15); and Cheney, at 14%-42% (-28).
Greene is the least well known of the four, with 51% of Republicans and Republican leaners saying they don’t know enough to say whether their impression is favorable or not. Respondents have the most fully formed views of McConnell.
Stephan: The alt-right whines that social media is biased against them. You have surely heard this claim. Like most Trumper claims it is a lie. Here are the facts.
After decades of claiming that everyone from the Los Angeles Times to Newsweek and Time has a “liberal media bias,” the far right has found a new target: social media. Countless Republicans — along with their allies at Fox News, Newsmax TV and AM talk radio — have been claiming that major social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have it in for conservatives. But according to a new study from New York University, there is no evidence that such a bias exists. And in fact, the study found that social media outlets and big tech have allowed conservatives to reach a larger audience.
“(The) claim of anti-conservative animus is itself a form of disinformation: a falsehood with no reliable evidence to support it,” according to New York University’s report. “No trustworthy large-scale studies have determined that conservative content is being removed for ideological reasons or that searches are being manipulated to favor liberal interests.”
In fact, some anti-Trump pundits have attacked social media for failing to adequately police content from […]
