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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.
James Gallagher, Health and Science Correspondent - BBC News
Stephan: Since the 1960s most experts and media outlets have been ranting on about over-population becoming a huge problem. In contrast for 20 years SR has been arguing, based on birth data, that the real problem is decreased population, and a disproportionate elder demographic. Here is the latest data and, as it says, it is jawdropping.
Credit: Getty
The world is ill-prepared for the global crash in children being born which is set to have a “jaw-dropping” impact on societies, say researchers.
Falling fertility rates mean nearly every country could have shrinking populations by the end of the century.
And 23 nations – including Spain and Japan – are expected to see their populations halve by 2100.
Countries will also age dramatically, with as many people turning 80 as there are being born.
What is going on?
The fertility rate – the average number of children a woman gives birth to – is falling.
If the number falls below approximately 2.1, then the size of the population starts to fall.
In 1950, women were having an average of 4.7 children in their lifetime.
Researchers at the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation showed the global fertility rate nearly halved to 2.4 in 2017 – and their study, published in the Lancet, projects it will fall below 1.7 by 2100.
As a result, the researchers expect the number of people on the planet to […]
Stephan: The Covid-19 virus has its own priorities and schedule, and so does climate change and sea rise. Here is the latest from NOAA.
Michel Rodriguez tries to jump to a shallow spot as he crosses a flooded street that was caused by the combination of the lunar orbit which caused seasonal high tides and what many believe is the rising sea levels due to climate change on September 29, 2015 in Miami Beach, Florida. Credit: Joe Raedle Getty
American coastal communities will experience high-tide flooding as many as 270 days a year by 2050, according to NOAA projections released yesterday that show sea-level rise causing the dramatic increases.
NOAA’s annual report on high-tide flooding—also called “sunny day” or “nuisance” flooding because it’s not related to storms—shows that records were set in the past year in one-quarter of the communities along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts where the agency has tide gauges.
Eagle Point, Texas, near Houston, experienced high-tide flooding 64 days in the one-year period from May 2019 through April.
“This is the new normal. It’s a floodier future,” NOAA oceanographer William Sweet said. “It’s this drive in sea-level rise that is really pumping up the water levels and causing more flooding to occur.”
Stephan: It is my view that the Republican Party from Trump and his administration as well as most Republican governors are accessories to mass murder and crimes against humanity. And to that group, I would also add Fox and the rest of the alt-right media that has knowingly and deliberately spread disinformation about the pandemic. Here's the data.
Texas Gov. Abbott visits Fox to brag about his “victory” after one of the nation’s shortest lockdowns.
Ever since protests began following the police murder of George Floyd, the conservative media has been eager to blame rising cases of COVID-19 on protesters. That has required overlooking a number of issues, primarily an utter disconnect between the primary sites of protests and the areas where the pandemic is now staging a massive comeback. But Fox News and its many friends have never been daunted by facts. However, as NPR reports, protests don’t appear to be associated with clusters of COVID-19. That’s because protesters in most areas wore masks, even during prolonged outdoor events in the heat of the day. Meanwhile other, less political activities—like house parties—were tied to new clusters of cases in Washington state, and reopening with a disregard for guidelines, social distancing, and mask mandates is driving up cases in multiple states.
But there is a political factor that’s increasing both the reach and the deadliness of the pandemic. Because studies are now showing how right-wing media, including Fox […]
Julie Wernau and Zusha Elinson, - Wall Street Journal
Stephan: America's gun psychosis has become a kind of secondary epidemic. More guns in the U.S., means more shootings, more deaths, and many of those shootings will be one family member shooting another in an argument.
MINNEAPOLIS—Americans are buying guns in record numbers.
The new coronavirus pandemic, civil unrest after the killing of George Floyd and the ensuing movement to defund police are bringing in new buyers worried about their personal safety, according to buyers, store owners and gun experts.
Gun sales began rising to unusual highs in March, as coronavirus cases began surging in the U.S. and government-ordered lockdowns led to the highest unemployment levels since the Great Depression. The Federal Bureau of Investigation processed 7.8 million background checks for gun purchases from March to June, according to National Shooting Sports Foundation, a firearms industry trade group.
In June, background checks for firearms were up 136%, compared to a year earlier, according to the trade group, which gives the best proxy for gun sales. Background checks in June for civilians seeking a license to carry were the highest since the FBI began conducting checks 20 years ago.
Background checks for guns in Georgia tripled last month versus last year, according to NSSF data, and have more than doubled in Oklahoma, New York, Illinois and Minnesota.Total U.S. background […]
Stephan: I wrote this, and consider it one of the most important papers I have written about American healthcare.
Texas Coronavirus ICU Credit: CNN
I can’t speak for you, but as I watch day-by-day, the thing that stands out for me is that we are asking a relatively small group of men and women to both save us and put their lives on the line. And yet we are failing them in almost every way. What kind of mental space do you have to be in not to see this? I will never forget the images of ER personnel cutting holes in 50-gallon trashbags and putting them on because they didn’t have enough proper PPE gear. The only thing comparable is going into combat knowing you might be killed or crippled in some way that would dominate the rest of your life and doing it anyway. That is real heroism. I think there should be some kind of national recognition, something special.
But because of those images, and that reality, what I want to talk about is the failure of the system that put these people in that position. If you stress a system to its limits, its strengths, but also […]
, - National Center for Coverage Innovation at Families USA
Stephan: It suprises me how little media coverage the dramatic loss of health insurance being experienced by Americans is generating. It is yet another aspect of the utter failure of U.S. the illness profit system to deal with the pandemic and its effects.
Results in Brief » An estimated 5.4 million workers are becoming uninsured because of job losses they experienced from February to May of this year. » These estimated increases in the number of uninsured adults would be 39% higher than any annual increase ever recorded. The highest previous increase took place over the one-year period from 2008 to 2009, when 3.9 million nonelderly adults became uninsured.
» Nearly half (46%) of the increases in the uninsured resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and economic crash have occurred in five states: California, Texas, Florida, New York, and North Carolina
» In eight states 20% or more of adults are now uninsured: Texas, where nearly three in ten adults under age 65 are uninsured (29%); Florida (25%); Oklahoma (24%); Georgia (23%); Mississippi (22%); Nevada (21%); North Carolina (20%); and South Carolina (20%). All but Oklahoma are also among the 15 states with the country’s highest spike in new COVID-19 cases during the week ending on July 12.
» Five states have experienced increases in the number of uninsured adults that exceed 40%: Massachusetts, where the […]
Roberto Stefan Foa and Jonathan Wilmot, Lecturer in politics at the University of Melbourne | Founder and CEO of xAI Asset Management - Foreign Policy
Stephan: Since American mass media doesn't really cover international news on a regular basis anymore, it's not surprising that this major trend about wealth inequality has gone almost entirely unremarked, although I have written about it a number of times. But I am not the only one who sees this as an issue of real concern. Here from the major American foreign policy journal, Foreign Policy, is a good exegetic essay on this trend.
A woman holds an electoral map as voting results come in at Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s election night event at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center Nov. 8, 2016 in New York City. Photo by Drew Angerer / Getty
In 2014, the Hill newspaper rated Minnesota the second-most-liberal U.S. state. For decades, Minnesotans had reliably supported Democrats in the House, in the Senate, and for the presidency—in Ronald Reagan’s landslide presidential reelection of 1984, it was the only state in the country to support his opponent, former Minnesota Sen. Walter Mondale.
Yet in 2016, America’s second-most-liberal state did something unexpected. As the presidential campaign rolled on, Donald Trump picked up a surge of support, drawing level with his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. In the end, Trump bettered Clinton in 78 of the state’s 87 counties. While Clinton eked out a narrow victory in the state by a 45,000-vote margin, it came almost entirely from the state’s largest city, Minneapolis.
On the morning of Nov. 9, 2016, progressives in Minneapolis woke up to find themselves on a lonely island […]
Stephan: Trump has resurrected Sebastian Gorka, pulling him from a grave somewhere, and appointed him to the National Security Education Board. How can that be? The man, even by Trump standards is an outstandingly vile orc from the rightwing sewage pit. The answer I think is that Trump's most dominant personality aspect is his obsession with wreaking vengeance against anyone who does not support him. I think he realizes he is probably going to lose, and so he is going to use the rest of his time in office essentially punishing Americans for his loss. Have you noticed that everyone he appoints is a grifter, corrupt, a scumbag, or all three? They will destroy the institutions to which they are appointed from the inside. So take that America. You didn't love me so I am going to screw you big time.
Sebastian Gorka
He’s been called a “fish-oil salesman,” a “terrible scholar,” and a “fake terrorism expert,” and has been accused of having ties to a neo-Nazi group but on Tuesday President Donald Trump nominated Sebastian Gorka to become a member of the prestigious National Security Education Board. The term is for four years.
Gorka, supposedly a “counterterrorism adviser,” spent about seven months as part of the nascent Trump administration, serving as a Deputy Assistant to the President and Strategist but ultimately “was unable to get clearance for the National Security Council,” the AP reported in May of 2017.
While working in the Trump White House Foreign Policy published an article titled, “Sebastian Gorka May Be a Far-Right Nativist, but for Sure He’s a Terrible Scholar.” That makes it challenging to defend placing Gorka on the National Security Education Board, which have “Cabinet-level” status, according to its own website.
Board members “include experts from non-profit organizations and academia,” and currently “include representatives from the Department of […]
