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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: I have been telling you for years, that neoliberal economics is a proven disaster. It is one of the reasons we have the worst wealth inequality in the developed world. Why we have so much poverty, and such awful social outcome data. And here is yet more, finally definitive I hope, outcome data proving yet again trickle down economic policy is financial excrement.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. AFP / Jim WATSON
Neoliberal gospel says that cutting taxes on the wealthy will eventually benefit everyone by boosting economic growth and reducing unemployment, but a new analysis of fiscal policies in 18 countries over the last 50 years reveals that progressive critics of “trickle down” theory have been right all along: supply-side economics fuels inequality, and the real beneficiaries of the right-wing approach to taxation are the super-rich.
“Cutting taxes on the rich increases top income shares, but has little effect on economic performance.” —David Hope and Julian Limberg The Economic Consequences of Major Tax Cuts for the Rich (pdf), a working paper published this month by the International Inequalities Institute at the London School of Economics and written by LSE’s David Hope and Julian Limberg of King’s College London, examines data from nearly 20 OECD countries, including the U.K. and the U.S., and finds that the past five decades have been characterized by “falling taxes on the rich in the advanced economies,” with “major tax cuts… particularly clustered in the late 1980s.”Take advantage […]
Stephan: We are going to come out of this pandemic, no matter how it goes, as a very different country. Here is one aspect of this important trend. Whether that is different-good or different-bad is not clear yet, but Biden does give me hope. It could be like FDR's transition, which created a new world, and the middle-class we have known for 50 years, or it could be the dystopia of Trump world. Seventy-four million of us clearly prefer dystopia, so the rest of us will have to work even harder to create a collective social intention that produces wellbeing.
Illustration by Shaneé Benjamin for Vox
In a New Jersey suburb seven miles west of Midtown Manhattan, the American Dream is on shaky ground.
The Dream in question isn’t the mythological notion that upward social mobility is within reach for all hardworking Americans. It’s a $5 billion, 3 million-square-foot shopping and entertainment complex in East Rutherford featuring an indoor ski slope, an ice-skating rink, and a Nickelodeon-branded amusement park. The complex finally opened last fall, but it’s now facing huge new challenges.
The development’s complicated 17-year history, marked by ownership changes, false starts, and broken promises, had already put American Dream in a precarious situation. The Covid-19 pandemic hitting in March made things much worse. Whether the mall makes it in the long term will hinge in part on how it deals with the collapse of three of the marquee department stores that were to anchor the complex and draw foot traffic — Barneys New York, Lord & Taylor, and Century 21 — which all have gone bankrupt and closed, or are planning to close all their stores […]
Stephan: With more than three thousand people a day dying of Covid-19, this just elected Republican from Virginia's 5th District can say this, and a large percentage of his constituents believe it. This is a measure of how sick we have become as a society, sick not just with coronavirus but sick in our refusal to live in a world of facts.
Representative-elect Bob Good (screengrab).
Representative-elect Bob Good (R-VA) lied about the COVID-19 pandemic while addressing Trump supporters at a march in Washington, DC on Saturday.
“I can’t tell you how great it is to look out there and see your faces,” Good said, while wearing a red “Trump 2020” hat.
“This looks like a group of people that gets that this a phony pandemic,” he falsely claimed. “It’s a serious virus, but it’s a virus, it’s not a pandemic.”
“It’s great to see your faces, you get it. You stand up against tyranny. Thank you for being here today, thank you for saying no to the insanity,” he added.
Pippa Norris, McGuire Lecturer in Comparative Politics at Harvard University - The Washington Post
Stephan: It is my view that one of the most important, perhaps the most important contribution the United States of America has made to human culture is the demonstration that in a democracy the people have sovereignty and that we have proven this for more than two centuries. Thanks to Donald Trump and the Republican Party this demonstration almost came to an end in November and the weeks that have followed. Now the question we face is can our democracy survive when it is obvious one party does not believe in it or support it.
America faces a legitimacy crisis. Some 60 million Republicans deny Joe Biden’s victory. In an Economist-YouGov poll two weeks ago, 78 percent of President Trump’s voters claimed that the presidential election was unfair, 75 percent believed that the transition process should not begin and 79 percent said Trump should not concede. The president welcomes this belief and pressures local officials to reverse the outcome. Congressional Republicans support him. Parts of the country are filled with “Stop the steal” protests. Rush Limbaugh talks about secession. Will Republicans ever believe that the Biden administration rightfully holds power?
Perhaps these disputes can be regarded as a minor technical delay, generating a temporary dip in public faith in the integrity of American elections that will quickly be forgotten. After all, the courts held the line. Republican local and state officials refused to break the law. The mainstream press highlighted false claims. If Biden helps vanquish the pandemic, revitalize the economy and restore a sense of normality to public life, the “sore loser effect” — observed in many contests, especially in majoritarian winner-take-all elections — may fade. […]
Stephan: Here, if such were needed, is yet another example proving the uninterest the Republican Party has in fostering the wellbeing of our democracy. If I put on my historian persona and imagine how historians of the future will assess these people, I believe their names, starting with Trump, will live in infamy.
Loren Culp, a truly moronic Republican, continues to insist he was cheated out of victory in Washington’s gubernatorial election.
It’s been five weeks since the election, and he still hasn’t conceded. Alleging massive voter fraud, he’s demanded an audit of votes in populous Democratic strongholds. On Thursday, he sued the secretary of state.
We’re talking here about Loren Culp, the unsuccessful Republican nominee for governor in Washington state, where he lost by more than 13 percentage points on Nov. 3. Like Donald Trump, Culp insists he’s the victim of a rigged election.
Trump, it seems, isn’t the only dead-ender holding out more than a month after the election, refusing to acknowledge defeat. Even as Trump lost again in court on Friday, with the Supreme Court rejecting a long-shot effort to overturn the election, he remains a lodestar for denialists of the GOP.
In California, a Republican congressional candidate trounced in Democratic-heavy Los Angeles is still refusing to concede — while simultaneously announcing he’s running for governor. In Maryland, a congressional candidate beaten by more than 40 percentage points […]
Stephan: The moral vileness of Trump, and the U.S. Border Patrol, the lack of humanity and common decency of these men and women, simply cannot be exaggerated. These are disgusting human beings, and in my opinion, both ICE and the Border Patrol should be cleansed of anyone who participated in these programs, as one would flush out a septic tank.
Donald Trump | A pop-up art installation depicting a small child curled up underneath foil survival blankets in chain-link cages on June 12, 2019 in New York City, representing migrant children in U.S. Border Patrol custody. Photo illustration by Salon/Getty
Justice Department lawyers admitted on Saturday that the Trump administration is openly defying a court order issued by a federal judge who has frequently tangled with the DOJ since President Donald Trump took office.
Judge Emmet Sullivan ordered border officials last month to stop deporting unaccompanied migrant children without a court hearing or a chance to seek asylum in the United States. DOJ lawyers acknowledged in a court filing over the weekend that the Department of Homeland Security has ignored Sullivan’s order and since deported at least 66 unaccompanied migrant children in “contravention” of November’s ruling.
“Defendants regret that class members were expelled contrary to the Court’s injunction and are committed to full compliance with the Court’s injunction going forward,” the DOJ filing said.
The Trump administration is using a public health law that allows the government to temporarily block noncitizens to summarily deport more […]
Stephan: The idea of a second center in your gut is not new. Egyptian medicine held to this belief, and osteopathy has maintained this idea. However, this is the most refined and detailed understanding of the idea, and its implications are profound.
Scientists studied fetal and newborn mice to see when and how these neurons separate.
The “gut brain” is linked with emotional health and stress, but isn’t well understood.
Scientists have known for years that there’s a “second brain” of autonomous neurons in your long, winding human digestive tract—but that’s about where their knowledge of the so-called abdominal brain ends.
Now, in new research, scientists have catalogued 12 different kinds of neurons in the enteric nervous system (ENS) of mice. This “fundamental knowledge” unlocks a huge number of paths to new experiments and findings.
The gut brain greatly affects on how you body works. Your digestive system has a daily job to do as part of your metabolism, but it’s also subject to fluctuations in functionality, and otherwise related to your emotions.
Digestive symptoms and anxiety can be comorbid, and your gut is heavily affected by stress. So scientists believe having a […]
Stephan: All of us know someone whose life has been destroyed by their slipping away into Alzheimer's. And although medicine does not yet know how to stop this disease, it does know that the sooner you can diagnose Alzheimer's the more likely medicine is to be able to hold it at bay so that people can continue to live near-normal lives. The problem has been the only way to really make such an early diagnosis has been with a PET scan, and they cost thousands of dollars. Because we only have an illness profit system in the U.S. those without medical insurance or inadequate insurance, have been unable to get a PET scan. But now there has been a breakthrough and this is very good news. Here's the story.
Alzheimers Research LabCredit: Jerry Naunheim Jr./C2N Diagnostics/AP
A non-COVID medical breakthrough: People over 60 now have access to a blood test for Alzheimer’s disease.
Why it matters: The existing PET brain scan test costs some people about $5,000 and often isn’t covered by insurance, AP reports.
Both the blood test and the brain scan are looking for a buildup of a protein called beta-amyloid, which combined with symptoms like memory loss can lead to a dementia diagnosis.
The test hasn’t received FDA approval, and it’s being sold under rules for commercial labs.
The big picture: Roughly 5.5 million Americans may have Alzheimer’s-induced dementia, the NIH reports.
Earlier diagnoses can’t stop the disease, the NIH notes, but treatments can prolong the period before people lose the ability to function on their own.
Between the lines: C2N Diagnostics of St. Louis, which is selling the test and seeking FDA approval, hasn’t published any data on the test’s accuracy, AP notes.
Company promotional materials cite results comparing the test to PET brain scans.
