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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: Ted Cruz is a notably loathsome man, by reputation the most unpopular man in the Senate, and not surprisingly he is doing what he can to destroy democracy in America. But he is far from alone, as this latest report about what the Republican Party is up to.
I think it is very important to note that Trumpism is not conservatism, is not traditional Republicanism. It is not what conservatives and Republicans have traditionally supported. It is Trumpism, which is to say christofascism.
The real question for me is are there going to be any consequences for these people for their anti-democracy activities.
Republican Senator Ted Cruz Credit: Samuel Corum/Getty
On Saturday, 11 current and incoming Republican senators announced in a joint statement that they would object to the congressional certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory next week in a futile effort to hand outgoing President Donald Trump an unelected second term in office.
The statement — led by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz — also calls for the creation of an electoral commission modeled on a similar committee assembled in 1877, saying the commission would conduct “an emergency 10-day audit of the election returns in the disputed states.”
Citing “unprecedented allegations of voter fraud, violations and lax enforcement of election law, and other voting irregularities,” the letter also argues that states should be allowed to “evaluate the Commission’s findings and could convene a special legislative session to certify a change in their vote, if needed.”https://platform.twitter.com/embed/index.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1345419986425307136&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2F2021%2F1%2F2%2F22210509%2Fted-cruz-11-gop-senators-electoral-college-votes&siteScreenName=voxdotcom&theme=light&widgetsVersion=ed20a2b%3A1601588405575&width=550px
The days after the 2020 election have indeed seen unprecedented allegations of voter fraud — but all have been found to be without merit by the judicial system, state elected officials, national security officials, and elections officials. Nevertheless, […]
Karen Kaplan, Reporter - Los Angles Times/Yahoo News
Stephan: It may be that we are going to have to see something like a million people die before the stupidity of a large segment of the American public breaks down and those people are frightened into behaving rationally. First, they wouldn't wear masks, and now they won't get the vaccine. At this rate, it will take until the end of 2021, or maybe even longer, before those of us who are being careful are able to come out of isolation. What I am looking at is how many hospitals and hospital staffs just get overwhelmed and collapse; how many small businesses, particularly restaurants close never to reopen; and, how many people 18-24 become so depressed they commit suicide -- the statistics on this are looking very grim.
Anthony Kong of the Los Angeles Fire Department prepares a dose of COVID-19 vaccine. Just as vaccines are becoming available, fewer Americans are willing to take them, according to a new study. Credit: Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times
Health experts agree that the best way to end the COVID-19 pandemic is to vaccinate our way out of it. Unfortunately, Americans’ willingness to get a COVID-19 vaccine is waning, even as a punishing third wave claims well over 1,000 U.S. lives each day.
The latest evidence for this appears this week in the Journal of the American Medical Assn., and it shows that skepticism toward the vaccines is on the rise among Americans of all stripes.
Regardless of age, race or sex, U.S. adults were significantly less likely to say they’d get vaccinated in late November and early December than they were in early April. And though interest in COVID-19 vaccines has waned across the board, some groups of Americans are even less willing to be vaccinated than others.- ADVERTISEMENT –
Stephan: The Founders had very strong feelings about the involvement of religion in governance because they, or their immediate families, had had experiences in Britain where church and state were intertwined and there was a long history of Anglicanism -- the dominant form of Christianity in England -- doing horrible things to non-Anglicans. They built a firewall between church and state. But over the last 50 years the Republican Party seeing the emerging cult of christofascism as their way of staying in power has been doing everything it can to break down the Founders' firewall. Here is the latest.
Sawinder Singh had filed an EEOC complaint alleging he faced harassment for years as a bus operator in Montgomery County, Maryland, because he wears a turban and has a beard that is unshorn, in keeping with his Sikh faith. He reached a settlement with the school system. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post via Getty
It was the hectic week before Thanksgiving, and Amrith Kaur — the legal director of an advocacy group called the Sikh Coalition — was not prepared for a surprise update from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that could have dramatic consequences for her clients.
With little warning, the EEOC published a 112-page overhaul of its guidance on religious discrimination in the workplace. The feedback period was proceeding with no time to spare — she would have to file any comments by Dec. 17.
“To my knowledge, that was the first time that pretty much everybody heard about it,” said Kaur, who was busy handling home schooling for her children, ages 8 and 10, when the announcement popped up. “There’s so much happening, and I think it’s very strategic the […]
Stanley Reed, Environmental Reporter - The New York Times
Stephan: Here is some excellent good news about wind power. In spite of everything the carbon industry is doing to stay alive it is a dying industry. Sadly, the United States will not be leading the way in this transition, which has all manner of economic implications but instead playing catch-up. Still, the carbon energy era is doomed.
Twirling above a strip of land at the mouth of Rotterdam’s harbor is a wind turbine so large it is difficult to photograph. The turning diameter of its rotor is longer than two American football fields end to end. Later models will be taller than any building on the mainland of Western Europe.
Packed with sensors gathering data on wind speeds, electricity output and stresses on its components, the giant whirling machine in the Netherlands is a test model for a new series of giant offshore wind turbines planned by General Electric. When assembled in arrays, the wind machines have the potential to power cities, supplanting the emissions-spewing coal- or natural gas-fired plants that form the backbones of many electric systems today.
G.E. has yet to install one of these machines in ocean water. As a relative newcomer to the offshore wind business, the company faces questions about how quickly and efficiently it can scale up production to build and install hundreds of the turbines.
But already the giant turbines have turned heads in the industry. A top executive […]
Stephan: Red State is a typical alt-right disinformation operation, note the linkage between Chinese communist demonstrators and Trumpers. Given that approximately 6 percent of the American population now has Covid-19 and the equivalent of a mid-sized city such as Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, or Wichita have already died from the coronavirus, you have to ask how stupid does a person have to be to not wear a mask? Well, it seems there are a lot of stupid people in this country. Anti-mask "flash mobs" demonstrate this. Look at the headline encouraging this behavior.
There’s been a growing movement that’s just starting to get some attention. But it’s spreading in various areas throughout the country, and it’s not hard to understand why.
That’s the anti-mask flash mob.
As more and more news comes out that asymptomatic spread is basically zero and the science behind the efficacy of masks is questionable, more and more people are saying enough: open everything up and stop with the masks and restrictions.
The flash mobs go on masse to a store, speak against wearing masks and then go out again.
This one involved immigrants from Communist China who have some experience with oppressive government regulations and were urging others not to go along with it.
Here’s another one that’s in Los Angeles in the Erewhon Market, where the 50 mask-less protesters rushed in and chanted to “Open up LA!”
The group hit several other businesses throughout the neighborhood as well.
These folks didn’t riot, they simply made a point about the efficacy of masks. They were then demonized by media like TMZ more so then TMZ ever demonized actual BLM/Antifa rioters who tore things down, hurt people and burned things. According to TMZ, the anti-maskers are a “sick group” of […]
Stephan: John Alexander is one of the few people, and I am also one of them, who see the similarities between Trumpers, particularly the Proud Boys and the Bugaloo group, and Islamic extremists like the Taliban. I am surprised how infrequently this is mentioned by journalists since it is so obvious. Alexander lays it out.
Taliban
Proud Boys Credit: BBC
For years, many Western observers have wondered about how ISIS, and other fundamentalist Islamic organizations, have been able to radicalize so many followers. In reality, the techniques involved are very similar to those used in the establishment of Trump’s base of supporters. In 2016, his election was enabled because there was a large segment of the people who felt disenfranchised by the establishment candidates in both the Democratic and Republican parties. Trump was able to capitalize on this perceived marginalization, and largely because of the electoral college system, surprisingly won the election.
What has been established further since Trump took office, is his inordinate leaning towards authoritarianism as a preferred form of governance. His admiration of various totalitarian leaders such as Putin in Russia, Xi in China, Erdogan in Turkey, and especially Kim Jong Un in North Korea is well known. Trump has even mused about being anointed as president for life, as […]
Stephan: The Senate just overruled Trump's veto for the first time in his time as president, voting for hundreds of billions of dollars for the military budget. America spends more on its military than the next 15 nations in order of their budget combined. One thing is clear it is making the military-industrial corporations enormously wealthy. But what do we really get for that. You may be surprised.
A new U.S. government report warns over the last nine years, few of the Pentagon’s aircraft were ready at least 80 percent of the time.
Only two out of 46 aircraft types were “mission capable” for the majority of the last nine years.
One bright spot? The Pentagon’s F-35 fleet, including Air Force F-35As, Marine Corps F-35Bs, and Navy F-35Cs, are generally improving in mission availability.
A new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office slams the readiness rate of U.S. military warplanes, revealing that hardly any of them were able to maintain a consistently high level of “mission capable” aircraft over the last nine years.
The F-22 Raptor fleet was 80 percent mission capable zero out of nine years.KARIM SAHIBGETTY IMAGES
The report graded the 46 aircraft types on their ability to maintain a mission-capable level of at least 80 percent—that is, the ability of each type to have at least 80 percent of its aircraft capable of performing at least one of its assigned missions. For example, the F-22 […]
Stephan: Kristi Noem is an attractive woman, but as a governor, she is yet another Republican incompetent. The state only has a population of 899,174, which is less than the population of the 13 largest cities in the country, but it has had 99,164 individuals come down with Covid-19 -- 11 percent of its population -- and 1,488 have died so far from the coronavirus. Why? Perhaps because Noem has blocked all attempts to create a statewide mask mandate, or to establish a policy of proper social distancing. She is just another Republican hack, and another proof that Republican governance is always inferior to Democratic governance. You have to wonder what the people of South Dakota were thinking when they voted her into office, because at the end of the day, it is the voters who bear responsibility for this grotesque healthcare failure.
Another Republican incompetent Governor Kristi Noem of South Dakota Credit: RNC screenshot
On Friday, The Daily Beast reported that a federal judge in South Dakota slammed Republican Gov. Kristi Noem in an order directing a state court to stop delaying a defendant’s trial.
The state court had argued the trial needed to be put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But Judge Charles Kornmann pointed out that the state’s pandemic response has been far too incompetent and disengaged for them to use it as an excuse to deprive people of their Sixth Amendment right to a speedy and public trial.
“South Dakota has done little, if anything, to curtail the spread of the virus,” wrote Kornmann, adding of Noem specifically, “Her example significantly encourages South Dakotans to not wear masks … South Dakota is now a very dangerous place in which to live due to the spread of COVID-19.”
Noem has proudly boasted that her state will not infringe on residents’ liberty with public health restrictions, even as her state reports over 500 new cases […]
