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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: As is usually the case with any form of pollution the initial reports always underestimate when they first report the problem. Here is the latest on the pollution of the oceans by plastic. The situation is 10 times worse than anyone previously thought. And yet petroleum plastic is still legal. How is that possible? Greed and profit, of course.
Fishermen prepare to fish, amidst floating garbage off the shore of Manila Bay during World Oceans Day in Paranaque, Metro Manila June 8, 2013. The U.N. officially designated June 8th each year as World Oceans Day, in December 2008. Credit: Reuters/Erik De Castro
There is at least 10 times more plastic polluting the Atlantic Ocean than previously believed, a new study has found.
The National Oceanography Centre (NOC) study, the first to measure the “invisible” microplastics beneath the surface of the entire Atlantic Ocean, found that there were between 12-21 million tonnes (approximately 13-23 million U.S. tons) of them floating in the top 200 meters (approximately 656 feet) under the waves.
However, the study only measured the three most common types of microplastic in the upper levels of the ocean, The Guardian pointed out. The researchers estimate that the Atlantic’s total plastic load is closer to 200 million tonnes (approximately 220.4 million U.S. tons). That is much higher than the previous estimate of 17 million to 47 million […]
Stephan: I have been doing research for several weeks on why uniquely in the world, the United States, is handling the Covid-19 pandemic so badly. The obvious answer you usually see is the incompetence of the Trump administration. But as I thought about that I remembered the Sturgis biker rally, and beach pictures of people clustered together with no masks. That made me ask myself, what is the role of the attitude of Americans about this pandemic. How can they possibly find someone dying every 80 seconds acceptable? well, the research is out now and the answer is that 57% of Republicans do find this acceptable. Here is the data. I just find it appalling, but it explains a lot.
Supporters at a Trump Rally. Notice they are all White
A majority of Republicans said that the number of coronavirus deaths in the U.S. — now topping 176,000, according to data from Johns Hopkins University — is “acceptable,” according to a poll released Sunday.
A CBS News-YouGov poll determined that 57 percent of Republican respondents said the U.S. death toll for COVID-19 was “acceptable,” while 43 percent said it was “unacceptable.” Republicans were the only partisan group of which a majority of voters said the number of deaths was acceptable.
Among Democrats, 10 percent said the coronavirus death toll in the U.S. was acceptable, while 90 percent said it was unacceptable. For independents, 33 percent labeled the death toll as acceptable, and 67 percent called it unacceptable.
Republican respondents also differed among all voters on whether the U.S.’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic is “going well,” with 73 percent agreeing with that assessment. A total of 38 percent of all voters said it was going well.
Most voters — 62 percent — said the pandemic handling is “going badly,” but only 27 percent of Republicans agreed.
Republican participants were also more likely than […]
Stephan: Here is Monday's Republican Scum Report, this one involving Senator Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma. Once again, when I read this story I was challenged by this question: Is it possible to be a Republican official and an ethical person?
A reader wrote to ask me why I am doing these reports almost every day. My answer was that because they are strung out across the days, and don't get much media coverage, the real dimensions and impact of Republican unethical and criminal behavior doesn't really register with most people. It's only when you see the endless litany that you begin to understand how racist and vile this christofascist cult really is.
Oklahoma Republican Senator Jim Inhofe
Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) turns 86 this year, and it’s unclear if he’s forgotten the promise he made to his voters to root out corruption in Washington. The four-term incumbent has been linked to a lobbyist-turned-senate-staffer-turn-lobbyist-then-staffer again for the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Bonsell started working for Inhofe in 2001, but he left in 2007 to become a Vice President of Robison International Inc, a D.C. lobbying firm. The following year he joined an Altus, Oklahoma company named Aviation Training Consulting (ATC), because they hoped to obtain some contracts from the federal government. Bonsell appeared to have delivered because, by September, he’d scored $582,295 worth of contracts for the company in a single month.Defend democracy. Click to invest in courageous progressive journalism today.
Aviation Training Consulting received its first-ever defense contract, acquiring $582,295 worth of […]
Stephan: I am a year older than Joe Biden, although I am told I look much younger -- which is always nice to hear :-) -- but I make this observation, not about how we look but because I have a sense of how a man of his age thinks, particularly one who has suffered such loss. I too lost a life partner of many years, and was lucky enough, like Biden, to find a second life partner. It leaves one with few illusions about permanence. I have also met Biden several times, and for decades have listened to his speeches, and observed the kind of legislation he supports. He is not just intelligent, he has a sense of history, and understands the shaping of policies and what they can and cannot do. He lived through and was a major player in saving America once before from the previous Republican debacle when the Bush administration left the country in the pits. He knows what it takes to put the wheels back on the train.
Finally, and most importantly, Biden recognizes not just the reality of climate change, he also acknowledges what it will do. Finally, I don't think he believes he is going to be a two-term president; he would be in his eighties when he ran again. That is why I think he made deals with Sanders, Warren, and the other progressives, and why they support him with enthusiasm.
If enough of us vote to produce a landslide that gets the Trumpian mafia out of Washington, I think Biden has the vision to really make America great again.
Biden and Susan Rice
Sherrod Brown, the progressive senator from Ohio, says he’s talking with the Biden campaign about “where he needs to look and who he needs to look at” as he begins to form a potential administration.
Other people in positions of power, both inside and outside government, are engaged in similar conversations.
It’s part of an early, behind-the-scenes effort by the Biden campaign to shape the contours of a government he has pledged would be “the most progressive administration since FDR.”
Biden’s White House and his Cabinet would likely lean on his connections from the Obama administration, including institutionalists who are palatable to centrist Democrats. But in the same way Biden shifted left on policy in recent months in response to the pandemic, he is also taking advice from the progressive wing of the party.
Interviews with more than a dozen Democrats familiar with his transition process describe an effort by his campaign to assemble a center-left amalgamation of personnel designed to prioritize speed over ideology in responding to the coronavirus and the resulting economic ruin. […]
Dan Alexander and Richard Behar, Senior Editor | Contributing Editor - Forbes
Stephan: Forbes is hardly a leftwing publication, and I think that is important to keep in mind as you read this article. Even Forbes sees Trump as basically a criminal, who by choice surrounds himself with criminals. Also as you read this think of all the people in his administration who have been indicted for criminal activities. There is no precedent for any of this, at this scale, in American history.
Trump and fellow criminals Emin Agalarov, and Aras Agalarov at the Miss Universe 2013 beauty pageant final at Crocus City Hall in Moscow, Russia. Credit: ITAR-TASS/ VYACHESLAV PROKOFYEV/TASS/ GETTY
A new report from the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence offers a damning portrait of the people Donald Trump chose as his partners for potential projects in Russia. They include individuals with alleged connections to the mob, to Vladimir Putin and to human trafficking.
The group would comprise an extraordinary list of associates for any international businessman, let alone for the sitting president of the United States.
Trump Organization representatives did not respond to requests for comment. In 2016, Trump Organization lawyer Alan Garten insisted that the business conducts thorough due diligence on its outside partners. “We do extensive vetting on everyone we do business with,” he told Forbes at the time. “We do background checks on an international level. We do background checks on a local level. We check every available database commonly used. We use outside experts who specialize in this area. And that’s in addition to looking at the […]
Shima Baughman, Professor of Criminal Law - Raw Story/The Conversation
Stephan: I knew from the research literature I had read that most crimes committed in the U.S. never result in an arrest and conviction. But this latest research is even worse than anything I have ever read. When you add the police violence to the police failure to solve crimes, you have to ask: Why aren't we fundamentally changing law enforcement in the United States? What exactly are we getting for the hundreds of billions of dollars the present system costs? I think you also have to ask, why do so few crimes even get reported?
Policeman collecting evidence standing behind yellow crime scene tape Credit:Shutterstock
As Americans across the nation protest police violence, people have begun to call for cutsor changes in public spending on police. But neither these nor otherproposed reforms address a key problem with solving crimes.
My recent review of 50 years of national crime data confirms that, as police report, they don’t solve most serious crimes in America. But the real statistics are worse than police data show. In the U.S. it’s rare that a crime report leads to police arresting a suspect who is then convicted of the crime.
Stephan: Here is Monday's Republican Scum Report. It is poetic as well as legal justice. Trump has to pay Stormy Daniels' legal fees.
Trump speaks to the 2020 Council for National Policy Meeting, Friday, Aug. 21, 2020, in Arlington, Va. Credit: AP/Evan Vucci
LOS ANGELES — A California court ordered President Donald Trump this week to pay $44,100 in attorney fees to porn actress Stormy Daniels to pay for her legal battle over her effort to cancel a hush money deal brokered to keep her quiet about their sexual relationship a decade ago.
The order in Superior Court in Los Angeles determined Daniels won her lawsuit against Trump over the agreement that was signed 11 days before the 2016 presidential election. As a part of that deal, the losing party would pay the lawyers fees.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the decision.
The president’s personal lawyer at the time, Michael Cohen, paid $130,000 to Daniels, who filed the suit under her legal name Stephanie Clifford. After Trump’s election, Daniels sued to void the agreement.
Stephan: Like everything Trump says, his claims about voter fraud using mail-in ballots, are nothing but lies and, as this story points out, that has now been proven in court. Trump knows he is lying since he votes by mail. What this is really all about is casting shade over the entire electoral process so if he loses he can call the outcome into question. And from the polls it appears he is being successful. His followers, as Steve Bannon has demonstrated, are endlessly gullible.
Donald Trump in Virginia on Friday. The Trump campaign is suing to block the widespread use of official ballot dropboxes in Pennsylvania. Credit: Tasos Katopodis/EPA
The order came from US district judge Nicholas Ranjan, a Trump appointee, earlier this month amid a lawsuit in Pennsylvania over several voting policies. The Trump campaign is suing to block the widespread use of official ballot dropboxes in the state in locations other than an election office, and to allow poll watchers to work in counties other than the ones they live in.
The campaign also wants to block election officials from counting mail-in ballots if a voter forgets to put their mail-in ballot in a secrecy sleeve within the ballot return-envelope. The campaign argued in court that the current practices will lead to voter fraud […]
