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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 the Tuesday Republican Scum Report, this one from Alaska. I have said this before, but it is worth saying again, on the basis of the data it is clear that middle-aged Republican men seem to have a lot of sexual issues. Look at the Jerry Falwell, Jr. scandal, which I considered for today, but he is not a serving government official so I chose this one about Kevin Clarkson, Attorney General of Alaska instead; there are so many of these scum stories I have a choice, and that is a statement worth noting in and of itself. Clarkson is a true holier than thou self-righteous moralist publicly, but obviiously something quite different personally. Think about this: Clarkson sent this young woman 558 unsolicited and "uncomfortable" texts during the 31 days of March. That works out to be 18 a day. I wonder how many he sent his wife? I haven't sent 558 text messages in total in the last year, not even half that.
Disgraced Alaska Attorney General Kevin Clarkson speaking at Rightwing ALEX conference
Late last year, Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy wrote President Donald Trump asking for a favor on behalf of his appointed attorney general, Kevin Clarkson.
In a Dec. 2 letter, the governor asked Trump to help Clarkson’s wife and stepson overcome immigration obstacles in order to leave Colombia and join him in Alaska.
“Over the past year, I have found Attorney General Clarkson to be a wise and trusted legal advisor, a man of exceptional character, and a devoted husband and father,” the governor told Trump. Before being appointed in late 2018, Clarkson had been a champion of Christian conservative views on social issues such as same-sex marriage and abortion.
Today, Clarkson is on a monthlong leave of absence without pay, the Department of Law said in response to a records request. Without any public notice or explanation from the state, an acting attorney general has been appointed in his place.
Records obtained by the Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica show the abrupt and unusual […]
Stephan: The criminality of Trump and his family and the various corporations they control is just endless; there is nothing like it in American political history. Here is the latest and, because it is at the state level, it means Trump cannot issue pardons. I have a sense that there is a real possibility one or more of his children are going to jail. I think Trump should be in prison as well, but I just don't see that happening. I am not sure America is ready to see a former president locked up. Would the Secret Service still guard him?
The New York attorney general, Letitia James, filed a petition in state trial court in New York City naming the Trump Organization as a respondent, along with other business entities. Credit: Richard Drew/AP
The New York state attorney general has asked a court to enforce subpoenas that could reveal sensitive financial information about the Trump Organization, potentially pulling back the curtain on the president’s private business and throwing Donald Trump into legal jeopardy.
Letitia James filed a petition in state trial court in New York City naming the Trump Organization as a respondent, along with other business entities. The filing also named Eric Trump, one of the president’s sons, and Seven Springs, a New York estate owned by the Trump family.
If the court agrees with the petition, sensitive tax documents and other material relating to Trump family holdings could come to light. The information could also feed investigations by prosecutors into whether Trump and his associates misrepresented the value of assets in order to either avoid taxes or win loans.
Either activity could constitute fraud. Trump has denied all […]
Stephan: As is usually the case with any form of pollution the initial reports always underestimate when they first report the problem. Here is the latest on the pollution of the oceans by plastic. The situation is 10 times worse than anyone previously thought. And yet petroleum plastic is still legal. How is that possible? Greed and profit, of course.
Fishermen prepare to fish, amidst floating garbage off the shore of Manila Bay during World Oceans Day in Paranaque, Metro Manila June 8, 2013. The U.N. officially designated June 8th each year as World Oceans Day, in December 2008. Credit: Reuters/Erik De Castro
There is at least 10 times more plastic polluting the Atlantic Ocean than previously believed, a new study has found.
The National Oceanography Centre (NOC) study, the first to measure the “invisible” microplastics beneath the surface of the entire Atlantic Ocean, found that there were between 12-21 million tonnes (approximately 13-23 million U.S. tons) of them floating in the top 200 meters (approximately 656 feet) under the waves.
However, the study only measured the three most common types of microplastic in the upper levels of the ocean, The Guardian pointed out. The researchers estimate that the Atlantic’s total plastic load is closer to 200 million tonnes (approximately 220.4 million U.S. tons). That is much higher than the previous estimate of 17 million to 47 […]
Stephan: I have been doing research for several weeks on why uniquely in the world, the United States, is handling the Covid-19 pandemic so badly. The obvious answer you usually see is the incompetence of the Trump administration. But as I thought about that I remembered the Sturgis biker rally, and beach pictures of people clustered together with no masks. That made me ask myself, what is the role of the attitude of Americans about this pandemic. How can they possibly find someone dying every 80 seconds acceptable? well, the research is out now and the answer is that 57% of Republicans do find this acceptable. Here is the data. I just find it appalling, but it explains a lot.
Supporters at a Trump Rally. Notice they are all White
A majority of Republicans said that the number of coronavirus deaths in the U.S. — now topping 176,000, according to data from Johns Hopkins University — is “acceptable,” according to a poll released Sunday.
A CBS News-YouGov poll determined that 57 percent of Republican respondents said the U.S. death toll for COVID-19 was “acceptable,” while 43 percent said it was “unacceptable.” Republicans were the only partisan group of which a majority of voters said the number of deaths was acceptable.
Among Democrats, 10 percent said the coronavirus death toll in the U.S. was acceptable, while 90 percent said it was unacceptable. For independents, 33 percent labeled the death toll as acceptable, and 67 percent called it unacceptable.
Republican respondents also differed among all voters on whether the U.S.’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic is “going well,” with 73 percent agreeing with that assessment. A total of 38 percent of all voters said it was going well.
Most voters — 62 percent — said the pandemic handling is “going badly,” but only 27 percent of Republicans agreed.
Stephan: Here is Monday's Republican Scum Report, this one involving Senator Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma. Once again, when I read this story I was challenged by this question: Is it possible to be a Republican official and an ethical person?
A reader wrote to ask me why I am doing these reports almost every day. My answer was that because they are strung out across the days, and don't get much media coverage, the real dimensions and impact of Republican unethical and criminal behavior doesn't really register with most people. It's only when you see the endless litany that you begin to understand how racist and vile this christofascist cult really is.
Oklahoma Republican Senator Jim Inhofe
Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) turns 86 this year, and it’s unclear if he’s forgotten the promise he made to his voters to root out corruption in Washington. The four-term incumbent has been linked to a lobbyist-turned-senate-staffer-turn-lobbyist-then-staffer again for the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Bonsell started working for Inhofe in 2001, but he left in 2007 to become a Vice President of Robison International Inc, a D.C. lobbying firm. The following year he joined an Altus, Oklahoma company named Aviation Training Consulting (ATC), because they hoped to obtain some contracts from the federal government. Bonsell appeared to have delivered because, by September, he’d scored $582,295 worth of contracts for the company in a single month.Defend democracy. Click to invest in courageous progressive journalism today.
Aviation Training Consulting received its first-ever defense contract, acquiring $582,295 worth of contracts […]
Stephan: I am a year older than Joe Biden, although I am told I look much younger -- which is always nice to hear :-) -- but I make this observation, not about how we look but because I have a sense of how a man of his age thinks, particularly one who has suffered such loss. I too lost a life partner of many years, and was lucky enough, like Biden, to find a second life partner. It leaves one with few illusions about permanence. I have also met Biden several times, and for decades have listened to his speeches, and observed the kind of legislation he supports. He is not just intelligent, he has a sense of history, and understands the shaping of policies and what they can and cannot do. He lived through and was a major player in saving America once before from the previous Republican debacle when the Bush administration left the country in the pits. He knows what it takes to put the wheels back on the train.
Finally, and most importantly, Biden recognizes not just the reality of climate change, he also acknowledges what it will do. Finally, I don't think he believes he is going to be a two-term president; he would be in his eighties when he ran again. That is why I think he made deals with Sanders, Warren, and the other progressives, and why they support him with enthusiasm.
If enough of us vote to produce a landslide that gets the Trumpian mafia out of Washington, I think Biden has the vision to really make America great again.
Biden and Susan Rice
Sherrod Brown, the progressive senator from Ohio, says he’s talking with the Biden campaign about “where he needs to look and who he needs to look at” as he begins to form a potential administration.
Other people in positions of power, both inside and outside government, are engaged in similar conversations.
It’s part of an early, behind-the-scenes effort by the Biden campaign to shape the contours of a government he has pledged would be “the most progressive administration since FDR.”
Biden’s White House and his Cabinet would likely lean on his connections from the Obama administration, including institutionalists who are palatable to centrist Democrats. But in the same way Biden shifted left on policy in recent months in response to the pandemic, he is also taking advice from the progressive wing of the party.
Interviews with more than a dozen Democrats familiar with his transition process describe an effort by his campaign to assemble a center-left amalgamation of personnel designed to prioritize speed over ideology in responding to the coronavirus and the resulting economic ruin. Think […]
Dan Alexander and Richard Behar, Senior Editor | Contributing Editor - Forbes
Stephan: Forbes is hardly a leftwing publication, and I think that is important to keep in mind as you read this article. Even Forbes sees Trump as basically a criminal, who by choice surrounds himself with criminals. Also as you read this think of all the people in his administration who have been indicted for criminal activities. There is no precedent for any of this, at this scale, in American history.
Trump and fellow criminals Emin Agalarov, and Aras Agalarov at the Miss Universe 2013 beauty pageant final at Crocus City Hall in Moscow, Russia. Credit: ITAR-TASS/ VYACHESLAV PROKOFYEV/TASS/ GETTY
A new report from the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence offers a damning portrait of the people Donald Trump chose as his partners for potential projects in Russia. They include individuals with alleged connections to the mob, to Vladimir Putin and to human trafficking.
The group would comprise an extraordinary list of associates for any international businessman, let alone for the sitting president of the United States.
Trump Organization representatives did not respond to requests for comment. In 2016, Trump Organization lawyer Alan Garten insisted that the business conducts thorough due diligence on its outside partners. “We do extensive vetting on everyone we do business with,” he told Forbes at the time. “We do background checks on an international level. We do background checks on a local level. We check every available database commonly used. We use outside experts who specialize in this area. And that’s in addition to looking at the deal […]
Shima Baughman, Professor of Criminal Law - Raw Story/The Conversation
Stephan: I knew from the research literature I had read that most crimes committed in the U.S. never result in an arrest and conviction. But this latest research is even worse than anything I have ever read. When you add the police violence to the police failure to solve crimes, you have to ask: Why aren't we fundamentally changing law enforcement in the United States? What exactly are we getting for the hundreds of billions of dollars the present system costs? I think you also have to ask, why do so few crimes even get reported?
Policeman collecting evidence standing behind yellow crime scene tape Credit:Shutterstock
As Americans across the nation protest police violence, people have begun to call for cutsor changes in public spending on police. But neither these nor otherproposed reforms address a key problem with solving crimes.
My recent review of 50 years of national crime data confirms that, as police report, they don’t solve most serious crimes in America. But the real statistics are worse than police data show. In the U.S. it’s rare that a crime report leads to police arresting a suspect who is then convicted of the crime.
