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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

SCHWARTZ REPORT PODCAST

Schwartz Report Episode 52: Secrets of Happiness

Congress passes ‘pathetic’ COVID relief bill with billions in gifts for the wealthy

Stephan:  As I write this it looks like even this shabby bill to help Americans may not come to anything because Trump claims he will veto it. But what is clear is that Mitch McConnell rigged this bill so that a few crumbs go to ordinary Americans, and wonderful deals go to Republican rich individuals, and corporate sponsors of the party.  The United States has become a banana republic without the bananas, corrupt and rigged to favor the rich.
Senate Majority Leader Republican Senator Mitch McConnell

In late-night votes just hours after nearly 5,600 pages of legislative text were released, the U.S. Congress on Monday night approved trillions of dollars worth of government funding and coronavirus relief that will temporarily avert a catastrophic expiration of key benefits, send $600 direct payments to many Americans, and provide billions of dollars in handouts to the rich.

The entire Senate Democratic caucus and every Republican but six voted for the roughly $900 billion coronavirus relief legislation, which was paired with a $1.4 trillion spending package that will fund the federal government through next September. Just two House Democrats—Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii)—voted against the coronavirus relief portion of the sprawling package (pdf), which President Donald Trump is expected to sign.

“I voted against the latest Covid-19 relief legislation because it is woefully inadequate in addressing the needs of people,” Tlaib said in a statement late Monday. “I have watched as many of my colleagues rush […]

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Covid-19 Relief Bill Doubles Health Care Budget – For Congress

Stephan:  You don't count, the Congress has next to nothing for you and your family in terms of healthcare. Ah, but for themselves, it is a very different story, as this article spells out.
Mike Pence gets his vaccination. Of course, Congress made sure that they were first recipients of the Covid vaccine

In a flurry of last-minute legislating over coronavirus relief, congressional leaders abandoned hazard pay for essential workers and emergency funding for local governments that may be on the brink of municipal bankruptcy.

But lawmakers did find funding to dramatically increase the budget for the exclusive government-run health clinic that serves Congress. 

The Office of Attending Physician, which provides medical services to lawmakers, received a special boost of $5 million, more than doubling its annual budget, which is currently around $4.27 million.

The increase in funding to the OAP, if passed, is the third budget hike Congress has provided to its own health clinic over the last year. The 2019 omnibus provided an increase in funding to the OAP, along with the CARES Act, which passed this past March. 

The OAP, described as “some of the country’s best and most efficient government-run health care,” employs several physicians and nurses to provide on-call treatment to legislators on Capitol Hill. The new funding is justified by new services required for confronting the pandemic, […]

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The U.S. Postal Service Remains in Peril

Stephan:  Having trouble getting Christmas gifts to family and friends on time; not getting the Christmas cards friends sent you? Well, you can thank Louis DeJoy, Trump, and the Republicans in Congress for that.
A USPS worker delivers mail in Weehawken, New Jersey on Dec. 17
 Credit: Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency/Getty
 

In early November, after news organizations called the Presidential race for Joe Biden, throngs of revelers poured into the streets, where they cheered not only for the new President-elect, but for the United States Postal Service (USPS), which had overcome enormous obstacles to deliver mail-in ballots largely on time amidst a raging global pandemic. Shouts of “USPS” erupted in New York City and a child dressed as a USPS mailbox danced in the streets of Oakland, California.

In the weeks leading up to the election, U.S. Postal workers had worked around the clock, often risking their personal safety, to sift through mail-in ballots, trying to reassure voters that, despite President Trump’s attacks on their agency, voting by mail was safe, secure, and wouldn’t lead to accidental disenfranchisement. When those fears never materialized, the Postal Service’s performance was saluted, with relief.

But as the Presidential election has faded in the rearview mirror, the underlying issues that stoked anxiety about the efficacy of the USPS remain—even as […]

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The failure of conservative politics to foster wellbeing

Stephan:  Republican governance on the basis of social outcome facts is always inferior. Here are the facts.
Red State/Blue State map

For the past 15 years I have published in Explore I have tried to make the point that social values determine social outcomes, based on objective quantifiable social outcome data. And that on the basis of that data, it is clear that when forming social policy the best option is always the one that is the most compassionate, life-affirming and fostering of wellbeing. That option proves always easier to implement than the alternatives: more productive, more efficient, nicer to live under, longer enduring, and much much cheaper.1

I know this is going to be controversial, but I want to talk about a second point this data teaches, a trend that is shaping the United States in many ways. It’s components are frequently discussed, but the over-arching trend is rarely mentioned. I am speaking here of the objectively verified failure of conservative social policies to foster wellbeing. Where conservative social policies prevail, Americans, men, women, children, regardless of race or gender, are less healthy and have shorter more miserable lives […]

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What All the Secession Talk Really Means

Stephan:  More and more I am seeing comments from Republicans advocating secession. I don't believe for a minute, as this article confirms, that what they actually want is to split up the U.S.. For one thing, Republican governance is so inferior that the Red value states could not function if they were not underwritten by the Blue value states. For every dollar a Blue state puts into the treasury it takes out less than a dollar in federal benefits. For every dollar a Red state puts in they take out more than a dollar. The difference is the amount the Blue states underwrite the Red states. What the Red states do want is a christofascist authoritarian government in which White men are always in command.
The Republican drive for Secession

As MAGA World’s hopes for an election redo have slipped away, an equally improbable idea has begun to percolate among Donald Trump’s most bitterly disappointed followers: secession.

Texas GOP chair Allen West floated the idea of a new union of “law-abiding states,” and Texas State Rep. Kyle Biedermann—previously best known for dressing up as “gay Hitler”—pledged to file a bill in Austin to put the question of Texas secession to voters. Rep. Randy Weber also posted pro-secession material on his Facebook page, becoming the first official in Washington to advocate for disintegrating the U.S. Trump’s most reliable media supporters have likewise spread the idea nationally. Rush Limbaugh, recent recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, this month claimed the country was suddenly “trending toward secession.” Fellow arch-conspiracist Glenn Beck echoed the argument a few days later, as did a raft of blue-check authoritarians. American militias have now begun picking up the scent; one just the other […]

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Heavily Armed Far-Right Mob Floods Oregon Capitol

Stephan:  I am seeing more and more stories about right-wing militia thugs, the modern American equivalent of Hitler's Brown Shirts, stirred up by Trump, coming out of their sewers to threaten democracy. Here is the latest story from this trend, this one from Oregon.
Oregon militia thugs

SALEM, OREGON — A group of about 300 demonstrators attempted to force their way into two separate entrances of the Oregon State Capitol on Monday, outraged lawmakers were holding a special session closed to the public.

The crowd was a loose collection of members of the Proud BoysPatriot Prayer and other far-right groups, many of them are armed with pistols and rifles. At one point during the demonstration, which began around 9 a.m., a woman tried to climb in a window on the west side of the government building. Oregon State Troopers, however, repelled her—before two more troopers showed up to insist that she get off the ledge.

Those troopers were quickly chased off by screaming protesters, many of them toting long black rifles.

Minutes later, the crowd moved to the building’s north entrance and attempted to push their way in. A dozen more troopers arrived at the door, declared it an unlawful assembly, and pushed the crowd back, using some kind of deterrent in a series of “pop” sounds, at which point […]

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From the Proud Boys to QAnon: Pictures show the growth of far-right extremism in 2020

Stephan:  Unless you read right-wing websites, or watch faux news operations like Fox, NewsMax, and the like you really can't get an accurate sense of how active, organized, and expanding right-wing male dominant White militias have become. Even in my rural community, we are seeing this. This is a very alarming trend because it suggests that we are heading to a period of extensive civil violence.
A man hold his hand to his heart as a Proud Boys organizer recites the Pledge of Allegiance during a Proud Boys rally at Delta Park in Portland, Oregon on September 26, 2020. 
Credit: Maranie R. Staab/AFP/Getty
  • The year 2020 has been defined by the coronavirus pandemic, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the US presidential election.
  • These massive news events also fuelled a growing far-right movement across the United States and the world.
  • From The Proud Boys to the Boogaloo movement, 20 photos show how far-right groups found the limelight this year.
  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

The far-right movement came out of the shadows in the last year.

The year 2020, defined by a global pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement, brought white supremacists, right-wing extremists, and other groups promoting social unrest into the limelight.

From the Proud Boys to QAnon,  the armed militias, and the Boogaloo Bois, scroll down to find out more about how far-right extremism made its way back into the limelight in 2020.

The year 2020 has been defined by white supremacists’ rapid […]

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Trump campaign will again ask U.S. high court to upend election results

Stephan:  We have 30 more days of madness and, given what has happened since the election in November, we can expect much evil to be attempted by Trump before he is forced to leave. Just today, Trump is still trying to get the Supreme Court to overturn the election. As all of this has gone I keep wondering what would have happened if the Senate Republicans had had the spine and integrity to convict Trump of his impeachment and removed both him and Pence from office. Pelosi would have become President. A very different election would have occurred; the Covid-19 Pandemic would have been handled competently, and tens of thousands, perhaps a hundred thousand of our friends and family would still be alive; America would still be respected in the world; and, the economy would not have tanked in the way it has, and millions would not have been reduced to hunger and poverty.  History will condemn the Republican senators, but that will be small comfort to those of us who have been forced to live through these months because of the failure of Mitch McConnell and his Republican Senate colleagues.
The Supreme Court

President Donald Trump’s campaign said on Sunday it would again ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn results from the Nov. 3 election, its latest long-shot effort to subvert the electoral process and sow doubt over the legitimacy of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.

In a statement issued by the campaign, Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani said the campaign had filed a petition asking the high court to reverse three rulings by a Pennsylvania state court interpreting the state’s rules for mail-in ballots.

“The Campaign’s petition seeks to reverse three decisions which eviscerated the Pennsylvania Legislature’s protections against mail ballot fraud,” Giuliani said in a statement.

Giuliani said the filing sought all “appropriate remedies,” including an order allowing Pennsylvania’s Republican-controlled legislature to award the state’s 20 electoral votes to Trump. Biden won the state by more than 80,000 votes.

The petition is “frivolous” and is not going to stop Biden from becoming president on Jan. 20, said Joshua Douglas, an election law professor at the University of Kentucky.

“The Court will shut it down quickly,” Douglas said.

The Supreme Court on Dec. 11 rejected a lawsuit […]

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