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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 incompetence and failure of Trump and his administration to deal effectively with the Covid-19 pandemic, and his politicization of mask-wearing has not only killed hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children, it has so over-stressed an already fragile illness profit system that it is at the breaking point. Doctors, nurses, orderlies, technicians are all stressed to the point that they just can't continue.
It is my hope that the end result of all this sadness, stress, and death will be a complete re-evaluation of healthcare in the United States, and the creation of a real healthcare system, universal and birthright, that is based on fostering wellbeing. Why do we settle for less?
Dr. Kelly McGregory had to close down her private pediatric practice outside Minneapolis because of the pandemic. “It was devastating,” she said. “That was my baby.”Credit…Jenn Ackerman for The New York Times
Thousands of medical practices are closing, as doctors and nurses decide to retire early or shift to less intense jobs.
Two years ago, Dr. Kelly McGregory opened her own pediatric practice just outside Minneapolis, where she could spend as much time as she wanted with patients and parents could get all of their questions answered.
But just as her practice was beginning to thrive, the coronavirus hit the United States and began spreading across the country.
“As an independent practice with no real connection to a big health system, it was awful,” Dr. McGregory said. At one point, she had only three surgical masks left and worried that she could no longer safely treat patients.
Families were also staying away, concerned about catching the virus. “I did some telemedicine, but it wasn’t enough volume to really replace what I was doing in the clinic,” […]
Stephan: Historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat has said some of the most intelligent things I have encountered concerning Trump and his groupies in and out of office. Her book, Strongmen: From Mussolini to the Present, explains what is going on in the United States better than anything else I have read. We, as a country, must confront this psychotic part of ourselves if we are going to succeed as a country in the future.
Credit: Historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat
Republicans have become “lackeys” for Donald Trump, a fascism expert explained on Monday.
“Hey all, it’s later than usual, but it’s never too late to talk about collaborationism,” NYU professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat said in a video posted on Monday evening.
“Authoritarians are nothing without their enablers,” she explained. “And here we have the GOP, which played the classic role of the elites who bring the extremists into the system, thinking they can control him. I call this the ‘pivot delusion’ — that if they give him power, he’ll calm down.”
“Over and over in history, such elites have struck ‘authoritarian bargains’ as they’re known,” she continued. “They are loyal to the leader and he supports their causes.”ON THE PODCAST: Election Day 2000… all over again?
“For many in the GOP — whether it’s [Bill] Barr or [Mike] or [Mike] Pompeo — this means supporting white Christian hegemony,” Ben-Ghiat warned.
Stephan: Ultimately, everything with Trump becomes a self-referential grift, and yet his groupies never seem to care. As with Hitler and Mussolini, all shortcomings are accepted, all psychotic behaviors are excused.
Shortly before the major news networks called the election for Joe Biden on Saturday, Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien dialed into a private call for top donors and allies to insist his candidate could still win the race — and ask them one more time to chip in.
The margins are close, Stepien said, and the campaign is still fighting. And while he recognized the call was meant as a briefing on the recount fights and not a fundraiser, Stepien made an ask anyway: He urged the donors to go to the campaign website and give to Trump’s legal defense fund.
Much of the money raised by Stepien and the Trump campaign won’t go towards challenging election results, however, but to help set the stage for the president’s next act. The Trump campaign has a recount fund, but the money won’t go to it unless someone gives more than $8,333. Rather, 60 percent of a donation up to that amount for Trump’s “Official Election Defense Fund” is routed to a new PAC started this week by the […]
Stephan: When you surrender yourself, and adhere to your leader's sicknesses rather than his integrity your behavior becomes an expression of his weaknesses, his hate, his fear. And this is reflected in the social outcome data of the society in which you live. Here is the proof of this.
The number of hate crime murders hit a record high in 2019, while overall hate crime incidents rose by nearly 3% last year, according to the FBI’s annual hate crime report, published on Monday.
“Racially and ethnically motivated violent extremists — specifically white supremacist extremists — will remain the most persistent and lethal threat in the Homeland,” the Department of Homeland Security said in October.
By the numbers: There were 7,314 reported hate crimes in 2019, up from 7,120 the year before. Of 7,103 single-bias incidents — where one or more offenses are motivated by the same bias — reported last year:
55.8% were prompted by race, ethnicity or ancestry bias.
Nearly half (48.4%) of race-motivated hate crimes were due to anti-Black bias.
About 14.1% of race-motivated crimes were anti-Hispanic and 4.3% anti-Asian.
21.4% were motivated by religious bias
There were 953 reports of crimes targeting Jewish people and institutions last year, up about 12% since 2018.
Stephan: History is going to show that Donald Trump was the worst president in American history. Through stupidity, incompetence, pettiness, and criminality he changed the geopolitics of the world to America's detriment while facilitating the mass death of the people he was sworn to serve.
The largest free trade area in the world came into existence over the weekend — and the U.S. was not even invited.
Why it matters: For the first time in living memory, the hegemon at the center of a major global free trade agreement is not the U.S.
China has stepped into Uncle Sam’s shoes, and now anchors the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP, an area covering 2.2 billion people and 1/3 of all the economic activity on the planet.
The big picture: President-elect Joe Biden is expected to seek a broad multilateral alliance to pressure China on everything from trade to human rights once he becomes president. But China is making broad multilateral alliances of its own.
RCEP includes rich democracies such as South Korea, Japan, and Australia. Their position in this major free trade area will make it that much harder for Biden to unite them against China.
Flashback: The Obama administration was explicit that the U.S. should be the anchor of a Pacific Rim trade agreement, the TPP, that pointedly excluded China.
Stephan: Our democracy is in tatters, and I agree with what this article (note in a British paper) proposes. I also think it is time to call a spade a spade. The Republican Party is actively trying to sabotage American democracy.
Both Biden and Trump supporters gathered outside the convention center in Philadelphia where ballots were being counted on 6 November after the presidential election. Credit: RMV/Rex/Shutterstock
On 7 November the United States pulled back from the brink of re-electing a president who has repeatedly shown disdain for democratic norms and institutions. Donald Trump has fused his own business interests with the White House, dubbed the media “enemies of the people”, embraced foreign strongmen, sidelined science and politicized the justice department, falsely cast doubt on the electoral process and is currently distinguishing himself as the first sitting president since 1800 to frustrate a peaceful transition of power.
But as great escapes go, this one came bone-rattlingly close to collapsing. More people voted for Trump in the 2020 election – some 71 million Americans – than for any other presidential candidate in US history, other than Joe Biden himself. It took gargantuan determination to unseat him, with historically high turnout and black voters leading the way. And it happened in spite of, not because of, the unique features of US democracy.
The election exposed deep flaws in how Americans choose their […]
Stephan: Lindsey Graham was recently re-elected by the morons of South Carolina, a state which should be ashamed of itself. And one of his first acts, which if it isn't criminal should be, was to pressure the Secretary of State of Georgia to rig the election. The Republican Party has become a criminal cult. I think that is undeniable.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Monday that he has come under increasing pressure in recent days from fellow Republicans, including Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.), who he said questioned the validity of legally cast absentee ballots, in an effort to reverse President Trump’s narrow loss in the state.Follow the latest on Election 2020
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger Credit: AP
In a wide-ranging interview about the election, Raffensperger expressed exasperation over a string of baseless allegations coming from Trump and his allies about the integrity of the Georgia results, including claims that Dominion Voting Systems, the Colorado-based manufacturer of Georgia’s voting machines, is a “leftist” company with ties to Venezuela that engineered thousands of Trump votes to be left out of the count.
The atmosphere has grown so contentious, Raffensperger said, that he and his wife, Tricia, have received death threats in recent days, including a text to him that read: “You better not botch this recount. Your life depends on it.”
“Other than getting you angry, it’s also very disillusioning,” Raffensperger said of the threats, “particularly when […]
Stephan: Mitch McConnell has made it clear that what he and his party care about is power. Ordinary Americans, American democracy, not of any interest. Thanks, Kentucky for voting back into office a grifter fascist, who is going to screw you over in every way he can if that is what it takes for him to stay in power.
Mitch McConnell
Unless something truly extraordinary intervenes, we are on the cusp of what could become the bleakest winter in living memory. There are 166 days standing between us and a time when most of the country will be back into something akin to warm weather. The remainder of November, followed by December, January, February, March and April, almost 24 weeks of the long, cold dark and the menace of COVID-19, will be the collective fate of much of the country.
“In earlier surges, infections were concentrated in cities such as New York and Chicago, or populous states like Florida and Texas,” reports the Wall Street Journal. “Many of the outbreaks then were linked to travelers returning from overseas or so-called superspreading events such as conferences, weddings and rallies. Now, it is everywhere. People are becoming infected not just at big gatherings, but when they let their guard down, such as by not wearing a mask, while going about their daily routines or in smaller social settings that they thought of as safe — often among their own […]
