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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: This article lays out some important facts about Trump, his administration, and White militia terrorism.
In my view, we are seeing this trend develop because it is being encouraged and stimulated by Trump, and I think that is undeniable.
Elizabeth Neumann spent March 13 and 14 of 2019 at a conference in the picturesque Spanish port city of Málaga. The topic: terrorism. Western leaders were deeply worried about the dangers foreign terrorist fighters traveling back from places like Iraq, Libya and Syria would pose to their home countries. And that’s what Neumann expected to dominate the two-day event.
Neumann was DHS’s assistant secretary for threat prevention and security policy at the time, handling counterterrorism work from the Department of Homeland Security’s headquarters. In Málaga, a history-drenched resort town on Spain’s Costa del Sol that once marked the fault line between the Muslim and Christian worlds, she and her counterparts from scores of countries spent long hours talking about the terrorism threats that concerned them most. After a while, she began to see a pattern: Though concerns about instability in the Middle East dominated most public discussions on counterterrorism, about 80 percent of the leaders at the conference ranked far-right extremism among their top concerns.
The next morning, when Neumann woke up early to catch a cab to […]
Stephan: In the richest country in the world, the idea that hunger and food stress not only exists but is prevalent is hard for many to believe apparently, and yet that is the reality. This is one of the most fundamental demonstrations that we are a very sick culture whose values are badly dysfunctional.
Neisha Davis cradles brown paper lunch bags in the crook of one arm, while holding on to Demitri, her wriggling baby son, in the other and keeping a careful eye on Naya, her four-year-old daughter, as she runs around the church car park with another little girl.
It’s hectic but the free packed lunches have become a crucial part of their daily nutrition. So everyday at noon the family make the two-mile journey from Homewood, a low income predominantly African American Pittsburgh neighbourhood with no grocery stores, to the East End Community Ministry’s pop-up lunch stall in East Liberty.
“The lunches help a lot, the food is healthy and it fills them up, the food stamps are never enough,” said Davis, 36, who has enough freshly cooked hot dogs, fruit pots, carrots, and milk and juice cartons for her eldest two children who stayed home.
Once a week or so Davis also picks up groceries from the food pantry which provides fresh produce rarely available at her local convenience stores. “I was raised to be humble, and right now I’ve no […]
Stephan: Eventually, the truth comes out. Here is Thursday's Republican Scum Report, an account of the reality that obtains inside the Trump bubble.
Illustration by The Daily Beast/Getty
Miles Taylor, former DHS chief of staff, recalls the moment he said to himself “what the f*ck is happening” during a Trump meeting. Plus, the gang shits on night one of the RNC.
Miles Taylor, the former chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security, joined Rick Wilson and Molly Jong-Fast on this episode of The New Abnormal to share the eye-watering tales of what Trump is really like when the cameras are switched off.
The national security official couldn’t get through a meeting “without him doing 20 tangents, becoming irascible, turning red in the face, demanding a diet Coke, spewing spit,” Taylor explained. “Literally out of goddamn nowhere, he’d be like, ‘You know, who’s just my favorite guy? The MyPillow guy. Do any of you have those pillows?’”
When it came to the border wall, Trump would dream up “sickening” medieval plots “to pierce the flesh” of migrants, rip all the […]
Stephan: Now the Trump insiders who had reached their nausea limit and left are beginning to speak out, and it is clear that inside Trump world it was even viler than those of us outside that fetid bubble could have imagined. In its own way, I consider this a good news trend.
President Donald Trump promised to pardon U.S. immigration officials if they were caught breaking the law by blocking immigrants, including refugees and asylum seekers, from entering the country, a former top Department of Homeland Security official says. Federal law clearly says certain people, like refugees, must be allowed entry into the country.
“It was April of 2019,” former Homeland Security Chief of Staff Miles Taylor says, as The Washington Post reports. “We were down at the border, and the president said to the senior leadership of the Homeland Security Department behind the scenes we should not let anyone else into the United States.”
“Even though he’d been told on repeated occasions that the way he wanted to do it was illegal, his response was to say, ‘Do it. If you get in trouble, I’ll pardon you.’”
Trump told officials to tell those wishing to come to the U.S., “the bins are full.”
Maryanne Wolf, UCLA Professor and author of Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan: My wife was a Waldorf elementary school teacher for many years, and has commented to me about her belief that the function of childhood is play with others, not looking at video monitors, and that doing so would change kid's brains. And that this may well turn out to be another negative social outcome arising from Trump's incompetence in handling the Covid-19 pandemic. She's right, and the neurological and psychological data supporting her observation is beginning to be published.
‘With millions of students learning at home, developing a biliterate brain – one adapted to both digital and traditional print literacy – has never been more important.’ Credit: JGI/Jamie Grill/Getty /Blend
Literacy literally changes the human brain. The process of learning to read changes our brain, but so does what we read, how we readand on what we read (print, e-reader, phone, laptop). This is especially important in our new reality, when many people are tethered to multiple screens at any given moment. With much of the world working from home, and millions of students learning at home, developing a biliterate brain – one adapted to both digital and traditional print literacy – has never been more important.
The poet TS Eliot presciently asked: “Where is the knowledge in our information? Where is the wisdom in our knowledge?” Neuroscientists and educators ask similar questions: will different mediums advantage or disadvantage our abilities to acquire information, distinguish what is true, immerse ourselves in the perspectives of others and turn information into knowledge, the precursor of wisdom? The emerging answers will have […]
Stephan: Remember the "bomb trains" of the last few years and the damage they did? Well, thanks to Trump who has relaxed the rules Obama put into place they may be back. This is what pandering to corporate interests even when it is against the interests of the people looks like.
The aftermath of a bomb train incident, this one in Quebec Canada. Credit: AP/Surete du Quebec/Canadian Press
A new Trump administration rule relaxing guidelines that govern the transport of liquefied natural gas could create “bomb trains” with enough explosive power to level whole cities, environmental groups say. A coalition of organizations led by the nonprofit Earthjustice has sued the administration, challenging the rule, which is scheduled to go into effect on Monday.
Under the new rule, trains would be allowed to transport up to 30,000 gallons of liquified natural gas (LNG) per tank, significantly more than has ever been allowed in the U.S., and there will be no restrictions on the number of LNG tanker cars in a particular train, nor on the routes these trains may travel, so […]
Stephan: Here is the Tuesday Republican Scum Report, this one from Alaska. I have said this before, but it is worth saying again, on the basis of the data it is clear that middle-aged Republican men seem to have a lot of sexual issues. Look at the Jerry Falwell, Jr. scandal, which I considered for today, but he is not a serving government official so I chose this one about Kevin Clarkson, Attorney General of Alaska instead; there are so many of these scum stories I have a choice, and that is a statement worth noting in and of itself. Clarkson is a true holier than thou self-righteous moralist publicly, but obviiously something quite different personally. Think about this: Clarkson sent this young woman 558 unsolicited and "uncomfortable" texts during the 31 days of March. That works out to be 18 a day. I wonder how many he sent his wife? I haven't sent 558 text messages in total in the last year, not even half that.
Disgraced Alaska Attorney General Kevin Clarkson speaking at Rightwing ALEX conference
Late last year, Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy wrote President Donald Trump asking for a favor on behalf of his appointed attorney general, Kevin Clarkson.
In a Dec. 2 letter, the governor asked Trump to help Clarkson’s wife and stepson overcome immigration obstacles in order to leave Colombia and join him in Alaska.
“Over the past year, I have found Attorney General Clarkson to be a wise and trusted legal advisor, a man of exceptional character, and a devoted husband and father,” the governor told Trump. Before being appointed in late 2018, Clarkson had been a champion of Christian conservative views on social issues such as same-sex marriage and abortion.
Today, Clarkson is on a monthlong leave of absence without pay, the Department of Law said in response to a records request. Without any public notice or explanation from the state, an acting attorney general has been appointed in his place.
Records obtained by the Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica show the abrupt […]
Stephan: The criminality of Trump and his family and the various corporations they control is just endless; there is nothing like it in American political history. Here is the latest and, because it is at the state level, it means Trump cannot issue pardons. I have a sense that there is a real possibility one or more of his children are going to jail. I think Trump should be in prison as well, but I just don't see that happening. I am not sure America is ready to see a former president locked up. Would the Secret Service still guard him?
The New York attorney general, Letitia James, filed a petition in state trial court in New York City naming the Trump Organization as a respondent, along with other business entities. Credit: Richard Drew/AP
The New York state attorney general has asked a court to enforce subpoenas that could reveal sensitive financial information about the Trump Organization, potentially pulling back the curtain on the president’s private business and throwing Donald Trump into legal jeopardy.
Letitia James filed a petition in state trial court in New York City naming the Trump Organization as a respondent, along with other business entities. The filing also named Eric Trump, one of the president’s sons, and Seven Springs, a New York estate owned by the Trump family.
If the court agrees with the petition, sensitive tax documents and other material relating to Trump family holdings could come to light. The information could also feed investigations by prosecutors into whether Trump and his associates misrepresented the value of assets in order to either avoid taxes or win loans.
Either activity could constitute fraud. Trump has denied […]
