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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: Here is some excellent good news. Pope Francis is trying to move the sexually disturbed Roman Catholic Church into the 21st century. I am sure, however, there will be enormous pushback from within the church.
Pope Francis
Pope Francis called for the passage of civil union laws for same-sex couples in a documentary that aired in Rome on Wednesday, in a major departure from the position held by the Vatican’s doctrinal office.
“Homosexuals have a right to be part of the family,” the pontiff said in “Francesco,” a documentary about his life. “They’re children of God and have a right to a family. Nobody should be thrown out, or be made miserable because of it.”
“What we have to create is a civil union law,” he added. “That way, they are legally covered. I stood up for that.”
While serving as archbishop of Buenos Aires, Francis endorsed civil unions for gay couples as an alternative to same-sex marriages. However, he had never come out publicly in favor of civil unions as the pope.
“It’s not surprising coming from Pope Francis because of the trail of individual statements he has made here and there over his papacy,” Prof. Bruce Morrill, the Chair in Roman Catholic Studies at […]
Stephan: Here is some more good news from the Catholic media. I don't think it will make any difference to Moscow Mitch and the Republicans senators, but it may be an indicator about how Catholics will vote. Biden is a practicing Roman Catholic.
Judge Amy Coney Barrett of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, President Donald Trump’s nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, attends the third day of her Senate confirmation hearing to the Supreme Court on Capitol Hill in Washington Oct. 14. Credit: CNS/Reuters/Demetrius Freeman
The United States Senate should reject the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.
We believed it was wrong for the Senate to consider this nomination in the first place given the precedent set four years ago when Justice Antonin Scalia died in February, nine months before the election. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to even hold hearings on the nomination of Judge Merrick Garland, saying repeatedly that the American people should have a say in the matter. This year, when the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg created a vacancy less than nine weeks before Election Day, McConnell has seen fit to ram through the nomination.
The hypocrisy is rank, and it is impossible to see how rushing this nomination will be good for our democracy. The enmity caused by the […]
Spencer S. Hsu, Investigative Reporter - Washington Post
Stephan: Here is some more good news. One hero judge, Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, has blocked the vile heartless attempt of Trump to cut off food stamps for hundreds of thousands of Americans. She not only ruled against Trump, she condemned him.
I do so hope that in 13 days we can finally get rid of this orange monster and all the orcs that serve and support him.
Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, Judicial hero Credit: Washington Post
A federal judge on Sunday formally struck down a Trump administration attempt to end food stamp benefits for nearly 700,000 unemployed people, blocking as “arbitrary and capricious” the first of three such planned measures to restrict the federal food safety net.
In a scathing 67-page opinion, Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell of D.C. condemned the Agriculture Department for failing to justify or even address the impact of the sweeping change on states, saying its shortcomings had been placed in stark relief amid the coronavirus pandemic, during which unemployment has quadrupled and rosters of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program have grown by more than 17 percent, with more than 6 million new enrollees.
The rule “at issue in this litigation radically and abruptly alters decades of regulatory practice, leaving States scrambling and exponentially increasing food insecurity for tens of thousands of Americans,” Howell wrote, adding that the Agriculture Department “has been icily silent about how many [adults] would have been denied SNAP benefits had the changes sought . . . been in […]
Stephan: These are my views on racism and police brutality in the United States, a social crisis nurtured by Donald Trump; one that should not be forgotten as we vote because it is a sure sign of rising fascism. If you value America as a democratic republic you must vote against Trump and the Republicans.
After getting arrested several times for participating in civil rights demonstrations as I walked down Constitution Avenue, past what were then known as the Old Navy buildings, now long gone, on that warm Wednesday afternoon on the 28th of August 1963, I thought we had reached the turning point. I and thousands of others were moving quietly and peacefully towards the Lincoln Memorial where we were going to hear the Reverend Martin Luther King give what history now knows as the “I have a Dream” speech.
I was walking with a Black friend, a reporter for The Washington Star, an historic paper now long gone. I looked over Richard’s shoulder and saw walking next to us two young partners of the then conservative Republican law firm, Covington & Burling. Richard saw where I was looking and turned to watch them as well. To him they were just two more White men; a large proportion of the crowd were White, and men. When I explained who they were he smiled, and I said, “I think we’ve won.” It was […]
Stephan: Across the span of history, the two things that are the overwhelming sources of social violence are religion and wealth inequality. In the United States, we are now suffering from both of these civil dynamics, Christianity, the overwhelming religious affiliation of the majority of America's population has in all too many congregations become a White supremacy racist male-dominant christofascist cult, and our wealth inequality has reached a level of disparity unequaled in over a century and a half. Our civil society is very sick.
Over just the past seven months—as millions lost their jobs and health insurance, tens of thousands of small businesses shuttered permanently, and more than 200,000 Americans were killed by the coronavirus—U.S. billionaires saw their combined net worth surge by more than $930 billion, bringing the collective wealth of just 644 people to a staggering $3.88 trillion.
The new analysis shows that a handful of billionaires “have seen a particularly astonishing increase in wealth” over the past seven months:
Jeff Bezos’ wealth grew from $113 billion on March 18 to $203 billion on October 13, an increase of 80%. Adding in his ex-wife MacKenzie Scott’s wealth of $65.7 billion on that day and the two had a combined wealth of more than a quarter of a trillion dollars thanks to their Amazon stock.
Mark Zuckerberg’s wealth grew from $54.7 billion on March 18 to $101 billion on October 13, an increase of 85%, fueled by his Facebook stock.
Elon Musk’s wealth grew from $24.6 billion on March 18 to $92.8 billion on October 13, an increase of 277%, boosted by his Tesla stock.
Dan Gilbert, chairman of Quicken Loans, saw his wealth rocket by 656%, to […]
Stephan: In the previous report you saw one end of the economic inequality in the United States, here is the other end.
If you are making less than $3,000 a month, you have plenty of company, because about half of the country is in the exact same boat. The Social Security Administration just released new wage statistics for 2019, and they are pretty startling. To me, the most alarming thing in the entire report is the fact that the median yearly wage was just $34,248.45 last year. In other words, half of all American workers made less than $34,248.45 in 2019, and half of all American workers made more than $34,248.45. That isn’t a whole lot of money. In fact, when you divide $34,248.45 by 12 you get just $2,854.05. Needless to say, it is not easy to survive in America today on just $2,854.05 a month, and this may help to explain why we have been seeing so many people fall out of the middle class in recent years.
And of course all of the figures that I am sharing with you in this article are just for 2019. This year, we have seen
Stephan: Every aspect of the American economy is rigged to favor the rich and milk the poor. Even tax auditing is biased in this way. Here is the story.
IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig at the Capitol on May 15, 2019, in Washington. Rettig says increasing audit rates of the wealthy depends on whether the IRS budget grows. Credit: Anna Moneymaker/Getty
The IRS audits the working poor at about the same rate as the wealthiest 1%. Now, in response to questions from a U.S. senator, the IRS has acknowledged that’s true but professes it can’t change anything unless it is given more money.
Last month, Rettig replied with a report, but it said the IRS has no plan and won’t have one until Congress agrees to restore the funding it slashed from the agency over the past nine years — something lawmakers have shown little inclination to do.
On the one hand, the IRS said, auditing poor taxpayers is a lot easier: The agency uses relatively low-level employees to audit returns for low-income […]
Stephan: Water is destiny, and water wars are an increasing issue across the world. And don't feel superior because the U.S. has its own challenges, as this report describes.
BOQUILLA, Mexico — The farmers armed themselves with sticks, rocks and homemade shields, ambushed hundreds of soldiers guarding a dam and seized control of one of the border region’s most important bodies of water.
The Mexican government was sending water — their water — to Texas, leaving them next to nothing for their thirsty crops, the farmers said. So they took over the dam and have refused to allow any of the water to flow to the United States for more than a month.
“This is a war,” said Victor Velderrain, a grower who helped lead the takeover, “to survive, to continue working, to feed my family.”
The standoff is the culmination of longstanding tensions over water between the United States and Mexico that have recently exploded into violence, pitting Mexican farmers against their own president and the global superpower next door.
Negotiating the exchange of water between the two countries has long been strained, but rising temperatures and long droughts have made the shared rivers along the border more valuable than ever, intensifying the stakes for […]
