IF YOU ENJOY SR AND FIND IT USEFUL WOULD YOU PLEASE DONATE
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: A reader wrote to me asking if a Supreme Court justice had ever been impeached. I immediately thought of Abe Fortas in 1968, but here is a full answer. Personally, I think that Clarence Thomas should be impeached; he is an aggressive fascist, and his wife is a right-wing activist and lobbyist. Not an appropriate fair-minded profile of a Supreme Court justice.
Former Associate Supreme Court Justice
Supreme Court justices serve for life, unless they resign, die or are impeached and removed from office. The reason for their lifetime tenure is to enable them to make decisions free from any pressure by the executive or legislative branches of government. Since the Supreme Court first convened in 1790, there have been 112 justices and only one ever has been impeached.
In 1804, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to impeach Associate Justice Samuel Chase. A signer of the Declaration of Independence, Chase was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court by President George Washington in 1796. A Federalist, Chase irked Thomas Jefferson and his Republican allies in Congress, and was impeached on politically motivated charges of acting in a partisan manner during several trials. However, in 1805 Chase was acquitted by the Senate, a decision that helped safeguard the independence of the judiciary. He served on the court until his death in 1811.
In 1969, Abe Fortas became the first—and, to date, only—Supreme Court justice to resign under the threat of impeachment. Named to the court by […]
Stephan: Even the right-wing press, and Breitbart certainly falls into that category, has made note of the explosion of gun sales in the United States. Trump has stimulated the fear that should the Democrats win they will "take your guns away." So powerful is the American gun psychosis that such nonsense is taken for truth. Just as with QAnon there is a significant portion of the population enthrall to willful ignorance. Trumpism is a form of mental illness, and unless we address it as a culture it is going to destroy us, as the followers of Hitler destroyed Germany.
Gun sales have been rising nationwide for months but are specifically up in seven swing states as the November 3, 2020, election approaches.
Fox News reports the Cook Political Report lists “Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as toss-ups” in the coming election. They also indicate New Hampshire and North Carolina can be considered toss-ups too.
Here is the kicker: There is a 77.9 percent surge in “gun sales growth” for those seven states.
This news is on top of National Shooting Sports Foundation’s findings ammunition sales surged 139 percent nationally during the first six months of 2020. And the surge in swing state gun sales comes as 2020 witnesses eight consecutive months of record background checks for gun sales.
On September 2, 2020, Breitbart News reported that January 2020 through August 2020, eight consecutive months, saw record gun sale background checks performed by the FBI.ahawkinsSorry, the video player failed to load.(Error Code: 101102)
What do these surging background checks, gun sales, and ammunition sales, indicate for the November elections, particularly where they are seen in swing states?
Do gun purchasers turn into gun voters, who will […]
Stephan: Where there are guns in the hands of the depressed and mentally ill there will inevitably be violence and death. How could it be otherwise since the purpose of guns is death? And this is what the American gun psychosis has produced. No other developed nation in the world suffers in this way.
‘Nationally, nearly half of suicides involve a firearm. But this congressional district research shows that the national average masks enormous differences between districts,’ Everytown report explains. Credit: Bloomberg/Getty
Almost 23,000 people die annually by gun suicide in the United States, tragedies that are overwhelming some rural congressional districts clustered in the nation’s west and south, according to new research from the Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund.
A dearth of mental health resources, shifting economic realities and widespread gun ownership factor in the devastating and disproportionate local death tolls around the country.
“Nationally, nearly half of suicides involve a firearm. But this congressional district research shows that the national average masks enormous differences between districts,” the Everytown report explains.
Meanwhile, experts fear as many as 7,000 additional lives could be lost to gun suicide during 2020 alone as Americans eye new firearm purchases amid a deeply felt economic recession brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. “It’s a toxic combination,” said Sarah Burd-Sharps, director of research at the Everytown Support Fund.
For months, more than a third of American adults have experienced symptoms of anxiety or depression, and phones at […]
Stephan: Today I am publishing only a single story because as we are days away from an election, I think it answers on a factual basis the critical question each voter should ask themselves before they vote.
Stephan A. Schwartz, Columnist - Explore - The Journal of Science and Healing
Stephan: I spent five weeks recently searching the research literature and the websites of the most reputable polling operations in search of an answer to a question a reader posed to me: "You make a big deal out of not being political and only using verifiable social outcome data. I agree with you that fostering wellbeing is the right criterion to use. But, can you prove on your own terms that conservative politics are inferior and produce less successful outcomes?" Here is the answer that I found.
Trump and Republican leadersCredit: USA TODAY
For the 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 than people in other developed nations. So […]
Stephan: I find so much of the news about America so toxic and negative that I often feel as if I have been swimming in a septic tank by the time I get through with each day's edition of SR. So today I have decided to do an edition of only positive news. None of it is really about America, but at least it shows that in various nations around the world good things are happening.
(There is no click through to this comment)
Stephan: The level of toxins in modern developed nations is alarming, and a known cause of diseases, as well as a threat to the earth's biosphere. Some countries understand this and are taking steps to improve this situation. Here is a report about this from Europe.
A mural reading “The future is Europe” is seen on a building outside the EU Headquarters in Brussels on November 24, 2018. Philippe Lopez LOPEZ / AFP / Getty
Europe’s chief policy-making body Wednesday called for a safer, more sustainable chemicals market, plotting a zero-tolerance approach that nearly eliminates hormone mimicking compounds.
The strategy, approved by the European Commission, represents some of the most ambitious policy recommendations on the planet and draws a stark contrast with the United States, where endocrine-disrupting compounds—such as bisphenol-A (BPA), phthalates, certain flame retardants and pesticides—remain largely unregulated and ubiquitous in products and packaging.
‘Once-in-a-Decade Opportunity’
Environmental health advocates hailed the effort as “the most transformative chemical policy initiative” in 20 years and a “once-in-a-decade opportunity to rethink Europe’s approach to chemicals management.”
“Every day, our exposure to cocktails of harmful chemicals is translating in real-life health conditions and diseases for current and future generations,” said Natacha Cingotti, senior policy officer for health and chemicals at the Brussels-based Health and Environment Alliance.
“While we welcome this significant step forward, the reality leaves no […]
Stephan: As this report describes, "Just 10 rivers are responsible for around 90% of all that plastic, according to a 2017 study from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research." The rivers are the source of much of the pollution in the ocean, and a young Dutchman, Boyan Slat, has come up with a remediation technology that seems to be working. Bravo Slat, and Holland for supporting his efforts.
Local workers haul away trash collected by the autonomous Interceptor 001 anchored in the Cengkareng Drain waterway in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Just 10 rivers are responsible for around 90% of all that plastic, according to a 2017 study from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research.”So if we focus on the worst rivers, we believe we can really have the fastest and most cost-effective way to close the tap and prevent more plastic from reaching the oceans in the first place,” Slat told CNN.The Ocean Cleanup is deploying floating trash collectors called “Interceptors.” These solar-powered, autonomous systems use the rivers’ currents to guide the trash onto a conveyor belts that carry the waste to awaiting bins.
