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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.
Here is some good waste plastics news from Colorado. Now if all the states would adopt this approach we could achieve a serious improvement in our waste plastic problem.
Used plastic bags. Credit: velkr0
At the beginning of 2023, Colorado began enforcing a 10-penny charge on all single-use plastic and paper bags at major retailers in the hope it would encourage the use of reusable ones. This hope sprung into a massive success.
A report from 9News claims that Colorado used 1.5 billion fewer plastic or paper shopping bags since the implementation of the Plastic Pollution Reduction Act of 2021 that entered into force at the beginning of last year.
The 10-cent charge amounted to $5 million in revenue for the state, which was spent on a variety of programs including the free distribution of durable reusable shopping bags and educational resources for community groups.
Only stores with three or more locations were required to charge the bag fee.
“It took many years to get it passed, but we have become now a leader in the nation,” said Randy Moorman director of policy and community campaigns at Eco-Cycle, the non-profit advocacy group that came up […]
I have been following and reporting on the secessionist trend for several years now (see SR archive), watching it grow in Republican-controlled Red States and amongst Republicans in Blue States. What I find particularly interesting is that these secessionist Red States have notably inferior social wellbeing and poorer governance. Some like Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama are basically the equivalent of third-world countries. And they are very racist. What Red States secessionists don’t seem to understand is how dependent the Red States are on funding from the Democrat-controlled Blue States. So if they seceded the wellbeing of those states would just further decline. I think we are reaching a point where the United States may be restructured. In my remote viewing study a large percentage of the viewers describe the United States as still existing in the future, but real power has devolved to the states.
The Texas state flag flies at River Oaks Country Club in Houston, Texas, on April 5, 2024. Texan nationalists are coordinating with secessionist campaigners from five other states, according to one of their leaders. Credit: Aaron M. Sprecher / Getty
Texan nationalists are coordinating with secessionist campaigners from five other states, who are also interested in breaking away from the United States, according to one of their leaders.
The claim was made by Daniel Miller, president of the pro-independence Texas Nationalist Movement (TNM), on the latest edition of his Late Night Coffee Talk online show that was broadcast on Facebook on June 19.
The past few months have seen a surge in activity from Texas independence campaigners, coinciding with heightened tensions between local authorities and the Biden administration over issues including illegal immigration and education. The Republican Party of Texas included support for an independence referendum in its 2024 Legislative Priorities and Platform document, which was released in June after this was approved by its convention in San Antonio the previous month. At the convention Read the Full Article
Michelle Andrews, - Med Page Today / Kaiser Family Foundation
Stephan:
The United States has the worst healthcare system in the developed world. As I have said repeatedly it isn’t really a healthcare system it is an illness profit system. We are the only developed democracy that does not have universal birthright single-payer healthcare. Why is that? Because the United States, as a result of the Citizens United Supreme Court decision legalizing bribing politicians, is the most corrupt democracy in the world. As of this year, in my opinion, we are now a plutocracy.
For Diana Perez, MD, a medical resident at the Family Health Center of Harlem, the handwritten thank-you note she received from a patient is all the evidence she needs that she has chosen the right training path.
Perez helped the patient — a homeless, West African immigrant who has HIV and other chronic conditions — get the medications and care he needed. She also did the paperwork that documented his medical needs for the nonprofit that helped him apply for asylum and secure housing.
“I really like whole-person care,” said Perez, 31, who has been based at this New York City health center for most of the past 3 years. “I wanted to learn and train, dealing with the everyday things I will be seeing as a primary care physician and really immersing myself in the community,” she said.
Few primary care residents get such extensive community-based outpatient training. The vast majority spend most of their residencies in hospitals. But Perez, who is being trained through the federal Teaching […]
Why would a man give $50 million to a convicted 34-count felon the day after his conviction? How could he be allowed to? He did it because criminal Trump told him he would significantly reduce his taxes, which are already a proportional fraction of what you pay. He was allowed to do it because the United States is the most corrupt developed nation in the world. We are a plutocracy in which the 756 billionaires in the U.S. buy the government they want.
Fascist plutocrat billionaire Timothy Mellon
Billionaire businessman Timothy Mellon, the grandson of Gilded Age plutocrat Andrew Mellon, made a $50 million donation to a pro-Donald Trump super PAC last month, a day after the former president was convicted by a New York jury on 34 felony counts.
Mellon had previously donated $25 million to super PACs backing both Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an independent presidential candidate. The New York Timesnoted late Thursday that Mellon, a reclusive GOP megadonor who has described safety net programs as “slavery redux,” is “now the first donor to give $100 million in disclosed federal contributions in this year’s election.”
“The grandson of Andrew Mellon peering out from behind a shrubbery to drop $50 million on an effort to defeat the strongest anti-monopolist element in government in decades is poetic,” The American Prospect‘s David Dayen wrote in response to Mellon’s donation, alluding in part to the Lina Khan-led Federal Trade Commission’s bold […]
This is the proof of what I have been telling you for years now. Humanity is simply not taking climate change seriously enough to protect the Matrix of Life and the wellbeing of our societies. As a result, the impact of its effects is going to be devastating. I urge you to take a look this afternoon at my Schwartzreport podcast, Five Trends Shaping the Earth, where I lay out five major trends that are going to impact your life and shape the lives of your children and grandchildren.
For the first time, India’s coal-powered stations, such as the Ennore plant near Chennai, used more coal than Europe and North America combined last year. Credit: Idrees Mohammed / EPA
The world’s consumption of fossil fuels climbed to a record high last year, driving emissions to more than 40 gigatonnes of CO2 for the first time, according to a global energy report.
Despite a record rise in the use of renewable energy in 2023, consumption of fossil fuels continued to increase too, an annual review of world energy by the Energy Institute found.
Juliet Davenport, the president of the Energy Institute, said the report had revealed “another year of highs in our energy-hungry world” including a record high consumption of fossil fuels, which rose by 1.5% to 505 exajoules.
The findings threaten to dash hopes held by climate scientists that 2023 would be recorded as the year in which annual emissions peaked before the global fossil fuel economy begins a terminal decline.
The Energy Institute, the global professional body for the energy sector, found that while energy industry emissions may have reached a peak in advanced economies, developing […]
The United States has the worst wealth inequality of any developed democracy. This grotesque inequality combined with the Citizens United Supreme Court decision which legalized bribery is why our dmoecracy hangs by a thread, and will be determined by the outcome of the election in November. But of one thing there can be no doubt. We are a plutocracy.
In its annual analysis of CEO pay for The Associated Press, executive data firm Equilar reviewed the salaries, bonuses, perks, stock awards and other pay components of 341 top executives. The survey found that median CEO pay jumped nearly 13% last year, more than three times the 4.1% that wages and benefits netted by private-sector workers rose through 2023.
The AP’s CEO compensation study included pay data for S&P 500 CEOs who have served at least two full consecutive fiscal years at their companies, which filed proxy statements between Jan. 1 and April 30. Beyond the widening gap in compensation between CEOs and their employees, the survey also spotlights persisting gender inequity — with women still making up a minuscule amount of those with chief executive titles compared to their male counterparts.
Here is the latest on some good news about homelessness SR has been covering. It offers an example of how real Christians, as opposed to christofascists, behave and seek to foster social wellbeing.
A rendering of Bethel AME’s new housing complex in San Diego. Credit: LPA Design Studios
About five years ago, Harvey Vaughn, the senior pastor at Bethel AME, the oldest Black church in San Diego, heard a radio report about rising homelessness in his city. He wondered if his congregation, which owned a roughly 7,000-square-foot lot around the corner, could help.
Today, the lot is a construction site for a new housing complex that will offer 25 one-bedroom apartments for low-income seniors and veterans. It’s the first of what advocates hope will be many such projects in San Diego, led by a group called YIGBY, which stands for Yes in God’s Backyard, a spin on the pro-housing Yes in My Backyard movement.
In a country with a shortage of affordable homes and a surplus of religious institutions grappling with rising costs and declining memberships, developers are looking to partner with churches, temples, and synagogues to build new housing. And amid a […]
Here is some more good news. It is clear that the collective consciousness of humanity is shifting; people are beginning to realize much more needs to be done to prepare for what climate change is doing. I hope we see this same awareness in the upcoming election.
Climate activists protest against fossil fuels at the UNFCCC COP28 Climate Conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on Dec. 12, 2023. Credit: Sean Gallup / Getty
According to a new global survey of 75,000 people — Peoples’ Climate Vote 2024 — 80 percent want their governments’ climate commitments to be stronger.
The poll, conducted by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), GeoPoll and Oxford University, posed 15 questions via telephone to residents of 77 countries that represented 87 percent of the global population, reported AFP.
“The Peoples’ Climate Vote is loud and clear. Global citizens want their leaders to transcend their differences, to act now and to act boldly to fight the climate crisis,” said Achim Steiner, UNDP administrator, in a press release from UNDP. “The survey results – unprecedented in their coverage – reveal a level of consensus that is truly astonishing. We urge leaders and policymakers to take note, especially as countries develop their next round of climate action pledges – or ‘nationally determined contributions’ under the Paris […]
