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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: Fascism in the United States is my top concern, followed by the radical diminution of America's standing in the world. Watch this video; it completely accords with the emails I am getting from my non-U.S. readers. Repairing what Trump and the Republicans have done to America's standing in the world is going to take years.
This is truly sad to watch.
Under Donald Trump, our country has been reduced to a laughingstock, a curiosity, and a pitiable mess. All of that is on display in this video from The New York Times. If you don’t feel like watching the whole thing, at the very least skip ahead to 6:05 to see just how much sympathy the world has for us — trapped as we are on Asshole Island.
This is America. That used to mean something. No longer.
Our only chance to recapture our status and earn back the respect of the world is to elect Joe Biden. There is simply no other option.
Stephan: The United States, in my opinion, has a psychotic fixation on guns and gun ownership. We are also a country where about a third of the population are in a racist fear fugue, and an even larger percentage have poor impulse control, and a lack of empathy. So it is not surprising that we also have more gun shootings and deaths than any other developed nation in the world. And, as this report lays out, based on the facts, things are getting worse.
Many large U.S. cities, including New York, Philadelphia and Chicago, have been plagued by a recent surge in shootings and subsequent fatalities, escalating the debate over gun violence, which has disproportionately impacted communities crippled by the coronavirus pandemic and ensuing recession.
KEY FACTS
There have been a total of 777 recorded shootings in New York City from Jan. 1 through the end of July, which is more than NYC had in the calendar year of 2019.
More than 240 people have been killed, and more than 1,000 shootings have been recorded thus far this year in Philadelphia.
According to statistics released Saturday by the Chicago Police Department, through the first seven months of 2020, there have been 440 homicides and 2,240 people shot (which accounts for 150 more gun deaths and 760 more shootings in Chicago compared to the same period last year).
A review of crime statistics among the nation’s 50 largest cities by the Wall Street Journal found that reported homicides were up 24% this year.
President Donald Trump has blamed increased violence in […]
Stephan: This article by Naomi Wolf was published in the British Guardian 13 years ago, long before Donald Trump was even a political figure. Republican George Bush (43) was President and the seeds of fascism in the U.S. had already been planted. The tragedy is that her assessment is truer today in 2020, under Republican Trump than it was when it was first published in 2007.
Nazis storm troopers on the 9th of November 1938, Kristallnacht
From Hitler to Pinochet and beyond, history shows there are certain steps that any would-be dictator must take to destroy constitutional freedoms. And, argues Naomi Wolf, George Bush and his administration seem to be taking them allPublished onTue 24 Apr 2007 15.02 EDT
They were not figuring these things out as they went along. If you look at history, you can see that there is essentially a blueprint for turning an open society into a dictatorship. That blueprint has been used again and again in more and less bloody, more and less terrifying ways. But it is always effective. It is very difficult and arduous to create and sustain a democracy – but history shows that closing one down is much simpler. You simply have to be willing to take the 10 steps.
As difficult as this is to contemplate, it is clear, if you are willing to look, that each of these 10 steps has already been initiated today in the United States by the Bush administration.
Stephan: Here is the Monday Republican scum report. Voters of Montana, what were you thinking?
Republican Senator Steve Daines with logos of Pfizer, Merck, Sanofi, Johnson & Johnson Credit: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images/WikiCommons
Republican Sen. Steve Daines of Montana, who faces a tough re-election fight this year, received thousands of dollars from pharmaceutical companies while pushing Congress to fund a fast-tracked coronavirus treatment and vaccine development program that eventually awarded contracts to those companies, Federal Election Commission records show.
The $10 billion program, dubbed Operation Warp Speed, was Daines’ marquee contribution to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), which President Trump signed into law on March 27.
In the days and weeks that Daines worked on the bill, PACs affiliated with the pharmaceutical corporations Pfizer and Sanofi gave his campaign $2,500 and $2,000, respectively. Four days before Trump signed the act, a Merck corporate PAC gave Daines $4,000.
In total, from the end of March to the end of June, Daines took a combined $24,000 from the corporate PACs of pharmaceutical companies involved with Operation Warp Speed.
In addition to Merck, Sanofi and Pfizer — which made two donations — Daines saw contributions from Johnson […]
Stephan: The Dalai Lama, presents yet another confirmation of The 8 Laws of Change, and affirms that humanity must see all life as interconnected and interdependent, and must create societies that make the fostering of wellbeing at every level their first priority.
Longtime readers of SR will also see in this essay by the Dalai Lama confirmation of what I was telling readers beginning about five years ago, when I said China's interest in Tibet was only secondarily about the Dalai Lama. The real interest was the collapse of the Himalayan hydrology upon which 1.4 billion people depend. With that collapse millions will become climate change refugees seeking to enter China.
Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama looks on as he sits on his ceremonial chair at the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts in Dharmsala, India, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2019. The institute, which was established to preserve and promote Tibetan theatrical arts, celebrated its 60th founding anniversary Tuesday. Credit: AP/Ashwini Bhatia
This planet is our only home. Environmental experts say that over the next few decades, global warming will reach such a level that many water resources will go dry. So ecology and combatting global warming are very important.
For example, my country, Tibet, is the ultimate source of water in Asia. Rivers including Pakistan’s Indus, India’s Ganges and Brahmaputra, China’s Yellow River, as well as the Mekong, flow from Tibet’s plateau. So we should pay more attention to the preservation of Tibetan ecology. This is not only for the interest of 6 million Tibetans but all people in this region. In the past, when I was flying over Afghanistan, there were clear signs that what used to be lakes and streams were already dry. I feel that Tibet also may […]
Stephan: Here is the latest on the Perovskite trend SR has been following for several years now. As the article describes I think this technology, although little remarked by corporate media at this point, has the power to push natural gas out of the competitive market, hastening the transition out of carbon energy. So I see this as excellent news.
This new perovskite solar cell research should send natural gas stakeholders running for the hills Credit: UC-San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering
Just a few years ago, low cost natural gas was the main force pushing coal out of the power generation market, and now low cost solar power is sneaking up on low cost natural gas. So far the competition is a trickle, not a flood. However, natural gas stakeholders don’t have much breathing room left, as indicated by the latest perovskite solar cell research.
To push the transition faster, solar costs have to drop even farther, faster. That means finding a material that is more economical to work with than silicon, and that’s where the perovskite solar cell […]
Stephan: American law enforcement, in my opinion, needs to be completely restructured including eliminating altogether the office of sheriff, the only elected law enforcement post, a hangover from Medieval England. No other developed nation in the OECD consortium permits or experiences anything like the violence of the American police
In Vallejo, California, a former police captain is alleging a secretive ritual that has triggered an independent investigation into the city’s embattled police force: he says some officers involved in fatal shootings since 2000 bent the tips of their star-shaped badges to mark each time they killed someone in the line of duty.
Former Vallejo police Capt. John Whitney, a 19-year department veteran and former SWAT commander who was fired from his job last August, first described the alleged tradition in an interview published this week by Open Vallejo.
According to the unaffiliated news outlet, officers involved in fatal shootings marked those incidents with backyard barbecues and were initiated into a “secretive clique” that included curving one of the tips of their seven-point sterling silver badge. The outlet said it spoke with more than 20 current and former government officials and reviewed records and hundreds of photographs taken before and after fatal shootings. Two officers named in the report denied having bent badges, with one telling Open Vallejo it was a “lie.”
Stephan: And here we have today's leading Republican scum report (there are others, but I only have so much room). You have to wonder under what rocks the Republican Party finds these orcs, and why they put them forward for office? And you also have to wonder why the voters of Arizona's 6th District thought sending this man to Washington was in their interests?
Republican Rep. David Schweikert agreed to pay a $50,000 fine, accept a formal reprimand, and admit to 11 different violations of congressional rules and campaign finance laws in a deal with the bipartisan House Ethics Committee to conclude its two-year-long investigation of the congressman.
Republican Rep. David Schweikert agreed to pay a $50,000 fine, accept a formal reprimand, and admit to 11 different violations of congressional rules and campaign finance laws in a deal with the bipartisan House Ethics Committee to conclude its two-year-long investigation of the congressman. But while the matter may now officially be closed, Schweikert’s already uncertain political future is now only more endangered.
The Ethics Committee’s wide-ranging findings fell into four categories: (1) “campaign finance violations and reporting errors”; (2) spending government money to support Schweikert’s political campaigns; (3) pressuring government staff to perform campaign work; and (4) Schweikert’s “lack of candor and due diligence in the course of the investigation.”
A special subcommittee convened to carry out the inquiry determined in its own […]
