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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.
Erica Werner and Jeff Stein, - The Washington Post
Stephan: Saturday: 18 states set single-day records for new coronavirus cases, 65,000 new cases, and 872 deaths. And the Trump administration is trying to gut testing and contact tracing. How is this not facilitating and augmenting mass murder?
Mandatory Credit: Photo by JIM LO SCALZO/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock (10715787b) US President Donald J. Trump (L), alongside Republican Senator from South Carolina Lindsey Graham (R), play golf at the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, USA, 18 July 2020. US President plays golf at the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, Credit: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock
The Trump administration is trying to block billions of dollars for states to conduct testing and contact tracing in the upcoming coronavirus relief bill, people involved in the talks said Saturday.
The administration is also trying to block billions of dollars that GOP senators want to allocate for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and billions more for the Pentagon and State Department to address the pandemic at home and abroad, the people said.
The administration’s posture has angered some GOP senators, the officials said, and some lawmakers are trying to push back and ensure that the money stays in the bill. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to reveal confidential deliberations, cautioned that the talks were fluid and the numbers were in flux.
MICHAEL LIPKA and GREGORY A. SMITH, - Pew Research Center
Stephan: Every day I check in with the FiveThirtyEight website to see what their meta-analysis of the polls has to say. And every day, as the death toll mounts, the pandemic spreads, civil rights are trashed, unemployment soars, the economy collapses, and corruption becomes so blatant we look less like a democracy and more like a banana republic, I see virtually no change in Trump's support.
How can that be I wonder? And I want a fact-based answer, not the usual political bloviation. Well, here is the answer; it is the evangelicals and fundamentalist "Christians", the christofascists.
They are an amazing group really. They prattle on endlessly about morality and spirituality and wear sanctimony like a cloak. They are obsessed with what other people do sexually. And yet the data is clear: it is all a fraud of White supremacy, willful ignorance, self-deception, and hypocrisy. And their choice for America is clear; they love and support Donald Trump perhaps the worst human being to ever occupy high public office in America. The facts are not pretty, but here they are.
Roughly seven-in-ten white evangelical Protestants (72%) say they approve of the way Trump is handling his job, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted June 16 to 22. That is a 6 percentage point drop from 78% recorded in April, in line with the 5-point drop during that period among U.S. adults overall. The share of white evangelicals who say they “very strongly” approve of Trump’s performance is now at 59%, down 8 points from 67% in April. (Pew Research Center also asked the presidential approval question in March of this year, at which time Trump’s rating was similar to results obtained in April.)
The same survey finds that if the 2020 presidential election were held today, 82% of white evangelical Protestant registered voters would vote for Trump or lean toward voting for him, while 17% say they would back the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee, […]
Beth Daley, Editor and General Manager - The Conversation
Stephan: Have you ever wondered how Jesus ended up looking like a tall lean blond Western European and not the black-haired Middle Easterner, someone you might see today in Syria, he so clearly was? Here's the story.
The portrayal of Jesus as a white, European man has come under renewed scrutiny during this period of introspection over the legacy of racism in society.
As protesters called for the removal of Confederate statues in the U.S., activist Shaun King went further, suggesting that murals and artwork depicting “white Jesus” should “come down.”
As a European Renaissance art historian, I study the evolving image of Jesus Christ from A.D. 1350 to 1600. Some of the best-known depictions of Christ, from Leonardo da Vinci’s “Last Supper” to Michelangelo’s “Last Judgment” in the Sistine Chapel, were produced during this period.
But the all-time most-reproduced image of Jesus comes from another period. It is Warner Sallman’s light-eyed, light-haired “Head of Christ” from 1940. Sallman, a former commercial artist who created art for advertising campaigns, successfully marketed this picture worldwide.
Stephan: This is a tiny little story, but in my opinion, it tells a big story. Trump may have 40% support in the U.S. but that does not mean he is not a psychopath. He is, and this is yet another example of his mental illness. He is vindictive and nasty to the smallest degree; that's the real importance of this story.
White House portraits of Clinton and Bush 43 taken down and stashed away under orders by Trump
The politics of presidential portraits continue to swirl around the Trump administration, according to a new report by CNN.
“The official portraits of former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush were removed from the Grand Foyer of the White House within the last week, aides told CNN, and replaced by those of two Republican presidents who served more than a century ago,” CNN reported. “White House tradition calls for portraits of the most recent American presidents to be given the most prominent placement, in the entrance of the executive mansion, visible to guests during official events.”
“Photographs of the new portrait locations were reviewed by CNN, showing the Clinton and Bush portraits now hanging in the Old Family Dining Room, a small space off the grand State Dining Room,” CNN explained. “The Old Family Dining Room is barely used in the Trump administration, aides said, and was taken off the list of locations visited during White House tours before the pandemic closed […]
Stephan: We have now reached the stage with Trump where secret unidentified troops in combat gear are capturing civilians on the street, stuffing them into unmarked cars, and driving them off to detain them in non-law enforcement buildings without ever saying what they are charged with. If this were happening in another country the media and the politicians would all be talking about the depredations of a fascist Gestapo. And that's what it is, only it is happening in Portland, Oregon, USA. Notice that the Republicans in Congress are as quiet as church mice. The reality that seems to be hard for Americans to accept, is that there are always large numbers of people in fascist states only too happy to serve their Der Fuhrer, whether he has a little mustache or orange makeup and bleached hair.
I consider this Oregon episode a trial run by Trump and his orcs; there will be more of this if they can get away with it, That's just how it started in Germany, Italy, Chile and a long list of other once fascist nations.
Federal officers pulled a protester into the Federal Courthouse on July 10 as protesters gathered in downtown Portland, Ore. Credit: Dave Killen/The Oregonian/Associated Press
PORTLAND, OREGON — Federal agents dressed in camouflage and tactical gear have taken to the streets of Portland in unmarked vans, seizing and detaining protesters and unleashing tear gas in what Gov. Kate Brown of Oregon has called “a blatant abuse of power.”
Since their arrival with the goal of tamping down persistent unrest, federal officers have shot one protester in the head with an apparent impact munition, leaving the man with severe head injuries and producing the image of blood dripping on Portland’s streets.
One of the people detained, Mark Pettibone, said in an interview that an unmarked vehicle stopped right in front of him around 2 a.m. on Wednesday and four people in camouflage jumped out. Given the lack of markings or identification, he had no idea who they were.
“One of the officers said, ‘It’s OK, it’s OK,’ and just grabbed me and threw me into the van. Another officer pulled my beanie down, […]
Stephan: The racism of Trump's public comments is so blatant it reminds me of George Wallace, and his political calculation brings back Nixon's Southern Strategy. The energy of this trend comes from the conscious and unconsciousness awareness that racially the U.S. is becoming a majority-minority nation. I actually think this will be one of the easier transitions. I predict that race will become an increasingly irrelevant issue, as older Whites die, and the demographics change. You can already see it happening in cable series, and in advertising.
Trump and Pence in the White House Credit: The White House
Anne Applebaum’s exploration of Laura Ingraham begins at a January 1995 cocktail party at David Brock’s home where an A-List of still-familiar conservatives convened to celebrate the swearing in of Newt Gingrich’s new Republican majority in the House of Representatives. This gives Appelbaum the opportunity to explore two different career trajectories. On one side are people like the host Brock, Bill Kristol, David Frum, John Podhoretz, and herself who have since broken with the Republican Party over it’s increasing xenophobia, racism and radicalism. On the other side are folks like Roger Kimball, Dinesh D’Souza, and Ingraham who have embraced and led these changes.
I don’t find Ingraham particularly interesting, but Applebaum is probably correct when she identifies a dread kind of pessimism about the future of the country as the primary explanation for her transformation from a happy Reaganite warrior into a Buchananite Know-Nothing. And that got me thinking a bit about how Republicans have responded to losing an increasing share of the minority vote.
Stephan: Regular readers will know that SR has been following this trend, the correlation between immigration and medical staffing, both physicians and nurses. This situation arises because of Trump's incompetence and willful ignorance of this relationship.
As hospitals across the United States brace for a difficult six months — with the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic still raging and concerns about a second wave in the fall — some are acutely short-staffed because of an ill-timed change to immigration policy and its inconsistent implementation.
A proclamation issued by President Donald Trump on June 22, barring the entry of most immigrants on work visas, came right as hospitals were expecting a new class of medical residents. Hundreds of young doctors were unable to start their residencies on time.
Trump’s order included the H1-B visa for highly skilled workers, which is used by some practicing doctors abroad who get U.S. residency slots. The proclamation stated that doctors “involved with the provision of medical care to individuals who have contracted COVID-19 and are currently hospitalized” should be exempt from the ban, but it delegated the issuing of guidance to the departments of State and Homeland Security. That guidance has been slow and inconsistent.
Many consulates started approving doctors’ visas on Thursday, after ProPublica asked the State Department […]
Stephan: I agree with this exegetic essay. I think the media are doing a very poor and superficial job of covering the trends that are going on.
Donald Trump isn’t running anything remotely like a normal presidential campaign. He’s not appealing to a wide swath of the electorate. He’s not trying to win over the middle. He’s not even trying to expand his base. He’s just further instigating his core supporters with racist appeals, conspiracy theories, scare stories and culture-war rhetoric. He’s narrowcasting to bubbles of ignorance and grievance and authoritarian submissiveness.
He doesn’t really have much choice. Any informed, non-blindered analysis of his leadership during the pandemic leads inescapably to the conclusion that he is dangerously incompetent. His fury over the surging national protests against racism, inequality and police brutality has durably positioned him on the wrong side of history.
Those who continue to support him at this point are truly Trump dead-enders. There is no way they constitute anywhere near a majority of Americans.
Covering this campaign with the hoary campaign-reporting algorithms made for typical elections would be a terrible mistake. Those algorithms were constructed to cover elections in which there was a rational choice between two reasonably proportional and plausible candidates.
And even under those conditions, they failed miserably, […]
Every day I check in with the FiveThirtyEight website to see what their meta-analysis of the polls has to say. And every day, as the death toll mounts, the pandemic spreads, civil rights are trashed, unemployment soars, the economy collapses, and corruption becomes so blatant we look less like a democracy and more like a banana republic, I see virtually no change in Trump's support.
How can that be I wonder? And I want a fact-based answer, not the usual political bloviation. Well, here is the answer; it is the evangelicals and fundamentalist "Christians", the christofascists.
They are an amazing group really. They prattle on endlessly about morality and spirituality and wear sanctimony like a cloak. They are obsessed with what other people do sexually. And yet the data is clear: it is all a fraud of White supremacy, willful ignorance, self-deception, and hypocrisy. And their choice for America is clear; they love and support Donald Trump perhaps the worst human being to ever occupy high public office in America. The facts are not pretty, but here they are. 
