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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.
The corruption and politicization of the christofascist cabal on the Supreme Court has reached a point where even the honorable justices that make up the consistent minority have had enough and are speaking out. If criminal Trump is elected I think the American judiciary will be finished as a fair, non-political, system of justice.
Associate Justice Elena Kagan at the supreme court in Washington DC on 23 April 2021. Credit: Erin Schaff / Getty
Elena Kagan issued a devastating dissent to the decision of her hard-right fellow Supreme Court justices to overturn the Chevron doctrine that has been a cornerstone of federal regulation for 40 years, accusing the majority of turning itself into “the country’s administrative czar”.
Kagan was joined by her two fellow liberal-leaning justices, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, in delivering a withering criticism of the actions of the ultra-right supermajority that was created by Donald Trump. Such caustic missives have become commonplace from the three outnumbered liberals, with each carefully crafted dissent sounding more incensed and despairing than the last.
In a speech at Harvard last month, Sotomayor revealed that after some of the supreme court’s recent decisions she has gone back to her office, closed the door and cried.
“There have been those days, and there are likely to be more,” she said.
Kagan’s dissent in Loper Bright Enterprises v Raimondo on Friday was the literary equivalent of crying over 33 pages. But she was also searingly angry.
More bad news as a result of the Dobbs decision. Take a look at this week’s SR podcast where I go into this in detail. As I said in the previous comment, six people are changing our world, as everyone looks on.
In the wake of the Supreme Court’s June 2022 Dobbs decision, as dozens of abortion clinics shut down in states with total or near-total abortion bans, reproductive justice advocates warned that the closures wouldn’t just affect patients seeking to terminate their pregnancies. Family planning clinics have historically provided more than abortion services, often offering basic gynecological health care for women. Indeed, more than 1 in 10 women get their birth control from these clinics, including those that also provide abortions. For low-income patients and people of color, the numbers are closer to one 1 in 5. Without access to affordable and reliable contraception, many more women were bound to become pregnant, whether they liked it or not. And without abortion as an option, many of them would be forced to carry unwanted pregnancies to term.
Now, in the first research to look at national trends in the use of birth control pills and emergency contraceptives in the post-Roe v. Wade era, a University of Southern California study has found evidence that those warnings were warranted. The analysis of what is known as “prescription-fill” data from retail pharmacies across […]
I want to thank all of you who have offered support for SR. I cannot express to you how much I appreciate it. Beth, my wonderful webmaster, wrote asking me to post something to suggest anyone who has donated this week check to see that the transaction was processed on their end. Apparently, there were a few technical issues.
Josh Bivens , Chief Economist - Economic Policy Institute
Stephan:
Okay, here are the facts. If you want a strong more vital economy you vote Democratic. There is no question about this. Sadly, I don’t think a large percentage of American voters comprehend this, and instead, they vote based on politically weaponized misinformation. If you know someone like that send the research article along to them, perhaps it will make a difference.
Summary: The economy performs much better during Democratic presidential administrations than during Republican ones.
Key findings
Since 1949, there has been a Democratic advantage in the average performance of key macroeconomic indicators measuring economic health, including:
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth
Job growth
Unemployment rate
Growth in inflation-adjusted wages
Growth of market-based incomes per capita
Inflation
Interest rates
This Democratic advantage is across the board in all variables we measure but strongest in private-sector outcomes—notably, business investment, job growth, and the growth of market-based incomes.
Household income growth (adjusted for inflation) was faster on average and far more equal during Democratic administrations, and the Democratic advantage shows up for every group.
Why this matters
We suspect that the simple facts on economic performance during Democratic and Republican administrations aren’t well known. Providing accurate economic information at a time of rampant misinformation supports an informed citizenry.
Full Report
The US economy has performed better when the president of the United States is a Democrat rather than a Republican, almost regardless of how one measures performance…The superiority of economic performance under Democrats rather than Republicans is nearly ubiquitous: it holds almost regardless of how you define success. By many measures, the performance gap is startlingly large. (Blinder and Watson 2016)
This is a large study, and although it is about young people in Germany, other research I have seen suggests that these trends are also what is happening in the United States. To properly understand these trends they must be placed in the proper context with other related trends: decreased fertility of men, marriage for both genders later in life, and fewer children born to couples. What that reveals is that profound changes are going on in the cultures of many developed nations. Now add climate change and massive migrations of millions of people. The world of our children, and their children is going to be dramatically different than society today.
MAINZ, GERMANY— Maybe romance really is just for adults after all. A new study suggests that teenagers today are not only more likely to be single, but also happier about it compared to previous generations. It’s an interesting shift in attitudes towards romantic relationships among young people considering rising levels of loneliness across the world today.
The research, conducted by a team of psychologists in Germany and published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, examines how satisfaction with being single has changed over time for different age groups. Their most striking finding was that adolescents born between 2001 and 2003 reported significantly higher satisfaction with singlehood compared to those born just a decade earlier.
This trend appears to be unique to teenagers, as the study found no similar increases in singlehood satisfaction among adults in their 20s and 30s. The results suggest that broader societal changes in how relationships and individual autonomy are viewed may be having a particularly strong impact on the youngest generation.
“Adolescents nowadays may be postponing entering relationships, prioritizing personal autonomy and individual fulfillment over romantic involvement, and embracing singlehood more openly,” the researchers speculate. However, they caution that more investigation is needed to understand the exact […]
Sean Murphy, Statehouse Reporter - Associated Press
Stephan:
Christian Nationalism across the country, but particularly in Republican-controlled Red States, is a growing trend with all kinds of implications, from the gutting of libraries, to how American history is taught, to how LGBTQ kids and issues are treated and taught, to outright attempts to breach the firewall between a pseudo-Christian theology and the state. Oklahoma, a deeply Red State is an example of what is going on.
Oklahoma White Christian Nationalist and Republican State Superintendent of Education Ryan Walters. Credit: Sue Ogrocki / AP
OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA — Oklahoma’s top education official ordered public schools Thursday to incorporate the Bible into lessons for grades 5 through 12, the latest effort by conservatives to incorporate religion into classrooms.
The directive drew immediate condemnation from civil rights groups and supporters of the separation of church and state, with some calling it an abuse of power and a violation of the U.S. Constitution.
The order sent to districts across the state by Republican State Superintendent Ryan Walters says adherence to the mandate is compulsory and “immediate and strict compliance is expected.”
“The Bible is an indispensable historical and cultural touchstone,” Walters said in a statement. “Without basic knowledge of it, Oklahoma students are unable to properly contextualize the foundation of our nation which is why Oklahoma educational standards provide for its instruction.”
Oklahoma law already explicitly allows Bibles in the classroom […]
Here is some good news. People are beginning to awaken to the reality that the problem of climate change arises largely because corporations put profit above all other considerations, and they are holding them responsible — and winning. If this is the trend, it will not be long until corporations begin to realize they have to spend the money to develop new technologies, or risk going out of business. How many of them will do this? I predict we will see in the coming decade.
Campaigners and legal counsel of the Dutch citizens’ movement Fossil-Free NL walk towards the court before filing a case against KLM because of the Dutch airline’s misleading advertisements that suggest flying won’t worsen the climate crisis, on April 20, 2023 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Credit: Michel Porro / Getty
A new report has found that climate lawsuits being filed against companies are on the rise all over the world, and most of them have been successful.
The report by the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) — Global trends in climate change litigation: 2024 snapshot — said that roughly 230 climate cases have been brought against trade associations and corporations since 2015, more than two-thirds of which have been filed since 2020.
“Climate litigation… has become an undeniably significant trend in how stakeholders are seeking to advance climate action and accountability,” said Andy Raine, the United Nations Environment Programme’s deputy director of law division, as The Guardian reported.
I wasn’t going to run this request again, however, it was suggested very strongly to me that I run it one more day so I am. SR needs some help because it is getting quite expensive to produce SR and now the SR podcast, which so many of you asked me to do. So if you are able to help I would very much appreciate any support you could provide. I particularly thank those of you who make monthly contributions.
