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: 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 his […]
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.
Stephan: Here is Monday's Republican Scum Report. It is poetic as well as legal justice. Trump has to pay Stormy Daniels' legal fees.
Trump speaks to the 2020 Council for National Policy Meeting, Friday, Aug. 21, 2020, in Arlington, Va. Credit: AP/Evan Vucci
LOS ANGELES — A California court ordered President Donald Trump this week to pay $44,100 in attorney fees to porn actress Stormy Daniels to pay for her legal battle over her effort to cancel a hush money deal brokered to keep her quiet about their sexual relationship a decade ago.
The order in Superior Court in Los Angeles determined Daniels won her lawsuit against Trump over the agreement that was signed 11 days before the 2016 presidential election. As a part of that deal, the losing party would pay the lawyers fees.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the decision.
The president’s personal lawyer at the time, Michael Cohen, paid $130,000 to Daniels, who filed the suit under her legal name Stephanie Clifford. After Trump’s election, Daniels sued to void the agreement.
Stephan: Like everything Trump says, his claims about voter fraud using mail-in ballots, are nothing but lies and, as this story points out, that has now been proven in court. Trump knows he is lying since he votes by mail. What this is really all about is casting shade over the entire electoral process so if he loses he can call the outcome into question. And from the polls it appears he is being successful. His followers, as Steve Bannon has demonstrated, are endlessly gullible.
Donald Trump in Virginia on Friday. The Trump campaign is suing to block the widespread use of official ballot dropboxes in Pennsylvania. Credit: Tasos Katopodis/EPA
The order came from US district judge Nicholas Ranjan, a Trump appointee, earlier this month amid a lawsuit in Pennsylvania over several voting policies. The Trump campaign is suing to block the widespread use of official ballot dropboxes in the state in locations other than an election office, and to allow poll watchers to work in counties other than the ones they live in.
The campaign also wants to block election officials from counting mail-in ballots if a voter forgets to put their mail-in ballot in a secrecy sleeve within the ballot return-envelope. The campaign argued in court that the current practices will lead to voter fraud without […]
Stephan: Tens of thousands of people in the West are having to evacuate, hundreds of thousands of acres are already destroyed. Yet the media coverage has been very small. Massive forest fires at a scale never before seen have become a regular part of Western weather. This is going to have a massive impact on where people live, and that is going to significantly alter the economies of Western states, and it is all part of the climate change trend.
California wildfire Credit: CNN
Major wildfires are burning in California and other Western states. More than 20 major fires are burning in the Golden State, fueled by high temperatures. But states from the Northwest into the Rockies are also experiencing devastating wildfires.
California
The 660,000 acres burned in California so far is about the same area of land as Rhode Island.
Active fires from August alone have burned more than double the total acreage burned in California in 2019 (about 260,000 acres).
The LNU Lightning Complex fire is already the 10th largest in California history, at 219,000 acres.
Having burned 219,000 acres in 96 hours since it started Monday morning, the LNU fire has burned the equivalent of one football field every 2 seconds since Monday morning.
According to Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), Wednesday set a one-day record for the amount of wildfire smoke emissions coming from California fires. The fires put an estimated 3 million tons of […]
Stephan: Everything in Trump world is a grift; there is always some crooked financial angle, in which your tax dollars are used to enrich Trump, his family, or one of his orcs. Here's the latest on the Steve Bannon Build the Wall grift.
Bannon and Trump fellow grifters
President Donald Trump was caught in a precarious position when one of his top former aides and former campaign CEO was indicted for fraud after running a fake effort to build the wall on the southern American border.
Over a year ago, the Pentagon inspector general began looking into a suspicious $400 million contract given from the Department of Homeland Security to the construction company linked to Bannon’s group. The funds came at Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) and Trump’s urging
“On Dec. 2, the Pentagon announced a contract worth up to $400 million to Fisher Sand and Gravel for the construction of 31 miles of new border barriers along the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge in southern Arizona,” said the Washington Post.Defend democracy. Click to invest in courageous progressive journalism today.
CEO Tommy Fisher launched an aggressive effort to try and score a contract, making several appearances on Fox News and paying at least $100,000 in lobbying. Fisher also personally lobbied the president, gave hefty donations to Cramer’s Senate campaign, and […]
