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: Not every country is run by a Trump clone and those that aren't are making very different choices about the future. This is a report from Singapore.
Grey-headed fish eagle (Ichthyophaga ichthyaetus) Credit: David Li.
Between 1953 and 2018, Singapore lost nearly 90% of its mangroves to urban expansion and other human activities.
Singapore has launched a new nature park that covers 400 hectares (990 acres), in an area that serves as a refueling site for migratory birds and a home to oriental hornbills, otters and crocodiles.
The initiative is part of a larger effort to plant 1 million trees across the city-state by 2030.
In addition to adding wildlife habitat, researchers say reforestation will help sequester carbon, lower the temperature of the city, and provide buffers against erosion and a rising sea.
SINGAPORE — Languishing in the soft, silty mud, the living fossil looked as if it didn’t have a care in the world as it feasted on the fish left stranded in the tidal mangrove pools of the Sungei Buloh wetlands. However, the saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) might have been a little less at ease if it knew nearly 90% of its mangrove habitat in Singapore has been lost over the past century.
Stephan: This article caught my attention, not only because it is good news but, also, because over a decade ago I predicted what this story reports. Some day soon, when I have some time, I am going to go through the SR archives and find all these predictions and assess how many have proven to be accurate.
Credit: Ree
Electric vehicles are incredible. Beyond eliminating fossil fuels, they are whisper quiet, accelerate faster than gasoline cars, and according to a new Consumer Reports study, operate with less expensive maintenance over time. But one of the biggest benefits of EVs is that they are revolutionizing the way cars are built.
How? As this new video from Israeli startup Ree demonstrates, the EV of tomorrow is basically just a giant skateboard. With tiny motors placed inside the wheels, the car can assume any form imaginable; any sort of seating or storage arrangement can be built right on top of this flat base.
[Photo: Ree]
Traditional gas cars were built atop a flat chassis, too. But that chassis was hardly so self-contained. Components such as your engine and steering system are on top. Then the motor propels a complex series of axles under the car. Of course you have brakes, suspension, cooling systems, gas lines, and other systems to snake around, too. It all adds up to 30,000 […]
Stephan: What we are seeing is a multi-year long-term strategy on the part of the Republican Party and the rich corporate owners they serve to rig the courts of America. Just as climate change is becoming a major threat they are positioning the court to block laws that threaten those corporate profits, particularly the carbon energy interests.
Judge Amy Coney Barrett appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday in Washington, D.C. on October 13, 2020. Credit: Astrid Riecken/The Washington Post/Getty
Environmentalists were appalled—if not necessarily surprised—by Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett’s statement Tuesday that she does not “have firm views” on climate change, an ostensibly neutral comment that critics said is tantamount to denial of the science.
“This has been the standard, canned answer that climate deniers have given for years. But now it’s 2020. We’re in a pandemic. You don’t need to be a scientist to be able to listen to scientists.” —Eric Holthaus
“Quite simply, if you’re neutral on climate change, you’re complicit in the collapse of the planetary ecosystem upon which the survival of every living thing depends,” meteorologist Eric Holthaus wrote late Tuesday in response to Barrett’s remarks.
Asked by Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.)—an outspoken opponent of bold climate action—whether she has “opinions” on climate change, Barrett said during Tuesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that she is “certainly not a scientist.”
“I mean, I’ve read things about climate change,” the judge added. “I would not say that […]
Stephan: The Republicans have been diligently working for years to restructure the American judicial system from the Supreme Court down to serve the rich, and the corporations they control, and one of the main things they do not want to face is climate change. When Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed by the Senate not only will the ACA, and a woman's right to choose be destroyed, but America will be guaranteed to not be prepared to deal with climate change.
Amy Coney Barrett and Vice President Mike Pence arrive at the U.S. Capitol. Credit: Erin Schaff/Getty
Amy Coney Barrett, if her confirmation process goes as Republicans hope, could still be serving on the Supreme Court in 2050.By then, the United Nations estimates that anywhere between 25 million and one billion people will have been displaced by the impacts of global warming within and between countries, as large stretches of the planet become unbearably hot. Crop yields in America’s grain belt and Southwest could be decimated. The Arctic Ocean may well have been ice-free for 15 years.
Just 10 percent of the U.S. population by that point is expected to live outside of cities. Should Barrett die in office at a similar age to Ruth Bader Ginsberg, senators representing tiny and increasingly uninhabitable slivers of this country will still be empowered to confirm her replacement.
We can avoid parts of this future. But it’s getting increasingly hard to imagine doing so if today’s judiciary branch remains intact. […]
Stephan: It would seem that the only way Republicans know to win an election is to cheat; and their disdain for ethical behavior is obvious.
An unofficial ballot drop box outside St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church in Simi Valley. Credit: Rebecca Albarran
The California Republican Party said Wednesday it will not comply with the state’s cease-and-desist order over unofficial ballot drop boxes placed in at least four counties ahead of the November election.The unauthorized ballot boxes, which state officials have called illegal, have been found in at least four counties across the state: Los Angeles, Ventura, Orange and Fresno.”Ballot harvesting program will continue,” California Republican Party spokesperson Hector Barajas said in a statement to CNN.The party made their intentions clear in a letter to the California Secretary of State on Wednesday. In the letter, attorneys for the state GOP say all of the ballot boxes deployed by the party are indoors, staffed by volunteers or party officials, secure and not labeled “official.”While images of the ballot boxes have shown the boxes labeled as “official,” the state GOP said it did not authorize the use of that term and had it removed.
“The California Republican Party did not promote, or authorize the […]
Stephan: Truth is simply not within the scope of Trump's reality. He is a compulsive liar, who hires liars, and we see this demonstrated every day.
Trump speaks after signing an executive order establishing the Task Force on Missing and Murdered American Indians and Alaska Natives, in the Oval Office of the White House on November 26, 2019 in Washington, DC. Attorney General William Barr recently announced the initiative on a trip to Montana where he met with Confederated Salish Kootenai Tribe leaders. Credit: Drew Angerer/Getty
The Department of Justice was placed in the awkward position of having to argue that President Donald Trump was not telling the truth when he told his supporters and the world that he had declassified “any and all” documents related to the federal government’s investigation of the “Russian Hoax”—which would have applied to the investigatory records from Robert Mueller’s team and even the full Mueller Report.
In response to an emergency motion filed by BuzzFeed News journalist Jason Leopold seeking unredacted portions of the Mueller Report and FBI witness interview materials (302s), attorneys from the DOJ insisted that it was simply not so that the president had given any such declassification order.
The latest controversy arose when President Trump announced last week that he […]
Stephan: Do you wonder how important the Supreme Court is in your personal life? Here is why this tiny group of people matter almost more than anyone else in the country. Supporting Trump's sabotage of the census, by their decision, is going to affect tens of millions of Americans negatively.
Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, left, talks with Chief Justice John Roberts on the steps of the Supreme Court. Credit: Win McNamee/Getty
The Supreme Court handed down a brief, unsigned order on Tuesday that is likely to shut down the 2020 census count. Only Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented publicly from the Court’s order in Ross v. National Urban League, although it is possible that as many as two other justices dissented without making that dissent public.
The case involves a late effort by political appointees to shut down the census count earlier than professionals within the Census Bureau determined that that count can be completed during a pandemic. The practical impact of the Court’s decision is that marginalized groups — including people of color, low-income individuals, and those who live on tribal lands — are especially likely to go uncounted.
As Sotomayor explains in her dissenting opinion, the census count was originally supposed to end on July 31, but the Census Bureau decided to extend that date until October 31 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Stephan: The Senate hearings I think are nothing more than a form of Republican Kabuki theater. As a result, I think there is a very high probability that a woman's right to choose, or get proper fertility care, or even contraception will soon be reversed at the federal level, and all these issues will be thrown back to the states. As a result, the already glaring quality of life difference between living in a Blue value state and A Red value state, most notably for women, will become even more pronounced. Frankly, it is already so bad that my wife and I would not live in a state governed by Republicans, not only because of the quality of politicians and the policies they pass, but because of a culture that elects such people.
uring the first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, President Trump stated that some of Amy Coney Barrett’s “biggest endorsers are very liberal people from Notre Dame.” As a former law student of the Supreme Court nominee, and as the former Notre Dame LGBT Law Forum president, I disagree with this characterization of Professor Barrett’s support — and I would note that Professor Barrett refused numerous opportunities to support the LGBTQ students of Notre Dame.
During my time at Notre Dame Law, the University was reluctant to recognize the LGBT Law Forum, a student-run organization that hosts events, panels and presentations for students and faculty on legal issues facing the LGBTQ community, and did not employ any openly LGBTQ tenure-track faculty. However, as a private Catholic University, Notre Dame employed a slew of professors whose scholarship opposed the advancement of LGBTQ rights. Despite numerous calls over the past four decades to change its anti-discrimination policy and include gender and sexual orientation as protected classes, Notre Dame continues to uphold the unfettered ability to discriminate as the university’s right. Hundreds of alumni, students and professors have signed petitions over the years to extend the University’s nondiscrimination policy. Professor Barrett has not.
