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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: Yet another aspect of the racism baked into the American law enforcement system. This whole system needs to be taken apart, a large percentage of sworn officers not only fired but listed so they can never again be employed by law enforcement. How is it possible this this sort of thing is not occurring in any other developed nation?
“We are not counterprotesters, we’re just going to make sure Coeur d’Alene is safe,” said Conrad Nelsen, holding the flag, as he stands next to armed citizen Dan Carson, left, during a protest in Idaho on June 2, 2020, over the police killing of George Floyd
A former Albuquerque City Council candidate who ran on a tough-on-crime platform shot a protester at an anti-police brutality demonstration on Monday and was arrested alongside members of a right-wing militia group. The shooting is an extreme example of a trend that has played out across the country as armed vigilantes pledging to protect property have shown up at protests — in many cases with encouragement or even explicit collaboration from law enforcement.
The shooter, Steven Ray Baca, had been intimidating protesters planning to topple a statue of the murderous Spanish conquistador Juan de Oñate outside the Albuquerque Museum. He was joined in this quest by members of the New Mexico Civil Guard, a militia group that emerged in the wake of coronavirus-related shutdowns.
Stephan: Jeff Shalet has, in my opinion, written one of the best profiles of the Trumper community I have read. It is depressing and more than a little scary. The United States metaphorically, is sitting on a powder keg, and the fuse has been lit by Donald Trump. It is not at all clear to me how this is going to turn out.
Trumper with Trump mask Credit: Bruce Gilden
Yusif Jones, standing in front of a long row of porta-potties, slides his plastic Trump mask over his face. “I’m him!” he exclaims. He puffs up his chest in his homemade Trump shirt. It’s a short-sleeved American flag pullover, onto which he has ironed black felt letters across vertical red and white stripes: GOT TRUMP? Then he flashes the O.K. sign, a silver ring on his pinky. “I’m him, dude!”
For Trump supporters like Jones, the O.K. sign—thumb meeting index finger, three fingers splayed—is a kind of secret handshake. It began as a joke—a “hoax” meant to trick liberals into believing that the raised fingers actually represent the letters WP: white power. The joke worked so well that it became real. Now, in certain circles, O.K. does mean white power—unless you say it doesn’t. Jones, a big, vein-popping, occasionally church-going white man burdened with what he calls an “Islamic” name by his hippie mother, revels in this kind of coded message, a sense of possessing knowledge shared only by a select few. It’s Möbius strip […]
Usually, this simply means that fluctuations in the markets may have little to no real bearing on the underlying realities we think of as making up the economy. Or that there are many important structural factors that make the markets’ outlook different from how ordinary citizens view the country’s overall economic health.
Sebastian Rotella, James Bandler and Patricia Callahan, Senior Reporters - ProPublica
Stephan: The World Health Organization was largely created by the United States because the medical community in America had made it clear to politicians from both parties that to deal with mass health crises effectively there had to be some kind of international body that could coordinate the effort since viruses and bacteria don't pay any attention to national borders. It was a clear case and other countries around the world saw the need and understood the thinking.
Trump's withdrawing from WHO is just another example of his stupidity and incompetence that little by little is destroying the stature of the United States on the world stage.
The World Health Organization’s 1979 Declaration of Smallpox Eradication. During the Cold War, the WHO convened scientists from the U.S., the Soviet Union and other countries for a global vaccination program that eradicated smallpox, one of the world’s most feared diseases. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention via The College of Physicians of Philadelphia)
Despite Trump’s declared exit from the WHO, officials continued working toward reforms and to prevent withdrawal. This week, they were told they must justify any cooperation with the WHO on the grounds of national security and public health safety.
Right before President Donald Trump unveiled punitive measures against China on May 29, he inserted a surprise into his prepared text.
“We will be today terminating our relationship with the World Health Organization,” he announced during a press conference in the Rose Garden.
Most of the president’s top aides — and even some of his Cabinet secretaries — were blindsided.
Just 11 days earlier, Trump had sent an ultimatum threatening to withdraw from the WHO if reforms were not enacted in 30 days. Some senior officials hoped that he was bluffing or […]
Stephan: This article is seven months old, but it makes what I see as the current electoral critical leverage point. This election is going to come down to how many people vote. Trump has a limited voting block, but they do vote. So the key to getting rid of Trump and his nightmare vampire coven is that a very high percentage of youth, people of color, and women must vote against him and the 23 Republicans in the Senate who are up for re-election. And based on what I have been seeing on the television is those demographics are going to do that; they are going to vote in extraordinary numbers. Expect every measure of voter suppression the Republicans can think of, and in your voting district now is the time to work against this suppression.
Credit: Hilary Swift/The New York Times
After the last Democratic presidential debate, pundits were adamant that the candidates most likely to win the general election were the centrists, particularly Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg, that they had the special quality that could soothe the fears of swing voters. I hear very little talk, however, about how a centrist candidate will activate the Democrats’ base or inspire new voters to turn out.
But that’s how the Democrats will win in 2020.
By expanding the numbers of young people, people of color, L.G.B.T.Q. folks and progressive whites who vote, progressives can take back the White House. The Democratic Party should mount a campaign with a bold set of propositions that excite progressives and not those voters for whom racial fears can be easily exploited.
Next Nov. 3, seven million young people of color will have turned 18 since the last election. These newly eligible voters are primed for political participation after having consumed a steady diet of videos of racially motivated shootings and stories about the kidnapping of immigrant children. But their interest in politics […]
Dean Russell, Veronica Penney, Bridget Hickey, Elizabeth Gawthrop, and Ali Raj, Reporters - The Center for Pubic Integrity
Stephan: To anyone capable of rational thought the Covid-19 pandemic is a wake-up call as to how unprepared and insufficient the American illness Profit System is at handling mass health crises. One would think that at every level of government there would now be planning to prepare for any such future events. But there isn't. In fact, one political party, The Republican Party, doesn't even seem interested or capable of such thinking and planning.
Well, get ready for a lot of suffering and mass death, not only from future pandemics but from climate change. As this well-researched report lays out it has already started.
A sign in direct sunlight indicates 120 degrees in Phoenix on June 20, 2016. Credit: AP Photo/Matt York
Introduction
PHOENIX — Charlie Rhodes lived alone on a tree-sparse street with sunburned lawns just outside this Arizona city. At 61, the Army veteran’s main connection to the world was Facebook; often, he posted several times a day. But as a heat wave blanketed the region in June 2016 — raising temperatures among the highest ever recorded — his posts stopped. Three weeks later, a pile of unopened mail outside his door prompted a call to police.
When officers arrived, they were overcome by the odor of rotting garbage, worsened by the still-searing heat. Inside the home, they found the air conditioner broken and its thermometer reading 99 degrees. Rhodes lay dead in the bedroom, his body decomposing. The cause, his autopsy shows: “complications of environmental heat exposure.”
Yearly heat-related deaths have more than doubled in Arizona in the last decade to 283. Across the country, heat caused at least 10,000 deaths between 1999 and 2016 — more than hurricanes, tornadoes or floods in […]
Stephan: The insurance companies have been tracking climate change for several decades now (see SR archives), and they and the banks and mortgage companies are beginning to address to the reality they see coming. This report presents one aspect of this.
Homes in Nags Head, N.C., as Hurricane Florence approached in September 2018. Credit…Steve Helber/AP
WASHINGTON — Up and down the coastline, rising seas and climate change are transforming a fixture of American homeownership that dates back generations: the classic 30-year mortgage.
Home buyers are increasingly using mortgages that make it easier for them to stop making their monthly payments and walk away from the loan if the home floods or becomes unsellable or unlivable. More banks are getting buyers in coastal areas to make bigger down payments — often as much as 40 percent of the purchase price, up from the traditional 20 percent — a sign that lenders have awakened to climate dangers and want to put less of their own money at risk.
And in one of the clearest signs that banks are worried about global warming, they are increasingly getting these mortgages off their own books by selling them to government-backed buyers like Fannie Mae, where taxpayers would be on the hook financially if any of the loans fail.
“Conventional mortgages have survived many financial crises, but they may not […]
Stephan: Here is yet another warning of what is coming. Back in the 1960s and 70s, the big fear of futurists was over-population and inadequate resources. I think that is all dead wrong.
The review analyzed 68 U.S. studies dating back to 2007 – which included over 32 million births.
84 percent of the births showed a statistically significant association between increased air pollution and heat exposure (related to climate change) and serious risks for pregnancy – specifically preterm birth, low birth weight, and stillbirth.
“[The investigation shows] that there is a clear association of prenatal exposure of air pollutants and health outcomes – children’s health outcomes…Here, we’re saying, the air we breathe affects deliveries,” said Conry, who was not an author […]
