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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: On the medical websites and journals, I am seeing more and more reports that Covid-19 may have long term effects that are just now being recognized. If you need another reason to wear your mask, and social distance here it is.
Lingering neurological conditions from COVID-19 include brain fog, headaches, fatigue and trouble concentrating. Credit: Istock/Lusia599
Could the coronavirus lead to chronic illness?
While lung scarring, heart and kidney damage may result from COVID-19, doctors and researchers are starting to clock the potential long-term impact of the virus on the brain also.
And many “long-haulers,” or COVID-19 patients who have continued showing symptoms for months after the initial infection passed, report neurological problems such as confusion and difficulty concentrating (or brain fog), as well as headaches, extreme fatigue, mood changes, insomnia and loss of taste and/or smell.
Indeed, the CDC recently warned that it takes longer to recover from COVID-19 than the 10- to 14-day quarantine window that has been touted throughout the pandemic. In fact, one in five young adults under 34 was not back to their usual health up to three weeks after testing positive. And 35% of surveyed U.S. adults overall had not returned to their normal state of health when interviewed […]
Stephan: Here is Sunday's Republican Scum Report. When I first saw this story I thought that it had to be a bad joke. Even Trump, so I thought, would not resurrect Elliott Abrams from whatever crypt he was in, and put him back into government at a senior level. I mean... Elliott Abrams. I was wrong. Trump would, and did appoint him. This is what your government has become.
Elliott Abrams Credit: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty
Following the resignation Thursday of State Department Iran envoy Brian Hook, President Donald Trump named as his replacement current special representative for Venezuela Elliott Abrams, a notorious warmonger and supporter of Latin American death squads who was convicted in 1991 of withholding information from Congress during the Iran-Contra scandal.
“Like most Trump appointees, he is not fit for the position, and will continue to hurt U.S. interests by enacting a failing strategy that will only succeed in spreading chaos and misery.” —Sina Toossi, National Iranian American Council
Abrams will now serve in both roles simultaneously, alarming anti-war groups who say someone with a record as blood-stained as his “should be barred for life from government positions and recognized as the war criminal that he is.”
“From El Salvador to Guatemala, Nicaragua to Panama, Elliott Abrams’ life’s work has been defined by the worst impulses of U.S. foreign policy: embracing war, ignoring gross human rights abuses, and supporting horrific authoritarian regimes,” said Stephen Miles, executive director of Win Without War.
Abrams’ appointment as special envoy to Iran comes days […]
Stephan: The religious anti-science bias in America, and the failure of public education to properly teach children why science is not just another ideology or argument, but a systematic way of establishing facts, have been brought into sharp relief by the Coronavirus. The results are tragic.
A Michigan library had to ask patrons to stop microwaving books to kill the coronavirus after noticing returned books with scorched pages. The Cleveland Clinic issued a public warning about the danger of using vodka concoctions as a hand sanitizer when recipes started to circulate.
Then came the surge of calls to poison control centers about bleach. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had to double-down on warnings not to drink it or rinse food in it.
Fear of covid-19 is exposing a lack of health literacy in this country that is not new. The confusion is amplified during a health emergency, however, by half-truths swirling in social media and misinformed statements by people in the public eye.
One in five people struggle with health information, says Michael S. Wolf, director of the Center for Applied Health Research on Aging at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University.
“It’s easy to misunderstand [medical information],” says Wolf, who is also founding director of the medical school’s Health Literacy and Learning Program. Some will be too ashamed to say so while others won’t […]
Stephan: The reality no one wants to talk about is that about a third of Americans dismiss science as just another argument, no more compelling than any other argument, and this is particularly true of Republicans.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
35% of Americans would not get free, FDA-approved vaccine if ready today
Republicans less inclined than Democrats to be vaccinated
Four in 10 non-White Americans would not get vaccine
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The coronavirus’ toll on the lives of people around the world continues to grow, with over 18 million confirmed cases and more than 700,000 deaths, including upwards of 150,000 of those in the United States. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, recently testified before Congress that he continues to be confident that a coronavirus vaccine will be ready by early 2021. With more indications that a vaccine could be close, the next question for health professionals, policymakers and political leaders will be Americans’ willingness to be vaccinated once a vaccine is ready.
But many Americans appear reluctant to be vaccinated, even if a vaccine were FDA-approved and available to them at no cost. Asked if they would get such a COVID-19 vaccine, 65% say they would, but 35% would not.
Stephan: The American Gulag in the best of times is a national disgrace, and humiliation of America in the eyes of the rest of the world. We have about 4.25% of the world's population and 25% of the world prisoners. This report tells you in terms that are about as clear and unequivocal as terms can be why a Republican-oriented judiciary is a disaster; a study in callous indifference, and lack of compassion.
Participants behind a banner reading “COVID BEHIND BARS = DEATH” attend a rally at Rikers Island in New York. Rights advocates have urged state, local, and federal officials to release vulnerable inmates during the coronavirus pandemic and ensure that prisons and jails are equipped with safety measures to prevent outbreaks. Credit : Erik McGregor/LightRocket/Getty
As prisons and jails across the country continue to report Covid-19 outbreaks among inmates and staff, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled late Wednesday that a county jail in California does not have to provide its population with basic sanitary and protective equipment or test symptomatic inmates.
Responding to an emergency application by officials at Orange County Jail, the court handed down a 5-4 ruling along partisan lines and issued a temporary stay on an earlier ruling by federal Judge Jesus Bernal.
After the ACLU and several detainees filed a complaint that the jail was not providing safe conditions for its population of 3,000 people, Bernal issued an injunction in May requiring Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes to implement social distancing, test inmates if they showed symptoms, and provide […]
Stephan: Here is Friday's Republic Scum Report. Republican Senators Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson, not on the basis of some Democratic charge, but on the assessment of the intelligence community are essentially acting as Russian agents to get Trump re-elected. I am personally unclear why that isn't treason but, in the strange world we live in today, a Black man in Louisiana can be jailed for life for trying to steal a pair of hedge shears, but two millionaire Republican senators can commit treason, in an attempt to sabotage American democracy, and face no consequences.
Republican Senators Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson. Have they committed treason? Credit: CNN
The Lugar Center is a fairly recent addition of the sort of traditional institute in Washington that prevailed before Donald Trump. Its mission is to advance an internationalist foreign policy, “bipartisan governance,” and bring together experts to “bridge ideological divides.” It was founded by one of the last of the moderate Republicans, Richard G. Lugar, the late U.S. senator from Indiana, who once seemed to define the mainstream of a now bygone party, in the forefront of legislation to curb nuclear proliferation, but was purged in a brutal primary, losing to a Tea Party candidate who declared rape that resulted in a pregnancy was a “gift from God.”
On May 27, the Lugar Center released its first comprehensive Congressional Oversight Hearing Index, an in-depth study of the due diligence of every committee of the House of Representatives and the Senate in holding the executive branch accountable, concluding with a grade for each committee. “If a House or […]
Stephan: The damage Donald Trump and his orcs have done may take a generation or more to repair, if repair is even possible. Most of this gets little attention in the large corporate media, but that does not mean it is not happening, or that it is not horribly destructive, or that it is not against the best interests of the America, Americans, and the biosphere of the earth.
A rule backed by oil interests tries to keep retirees’ savings locked in climate-threatened assets. Meanwhile, the government says the military must avoid those kind climate-threatened investments.
Drilling rig in Colorado. Credit: David Zalubowski
If you’ve ever seen Tom Cruise force Jack Nicholson to admit that he ordered the code red, then you know that one of the best ways to expose lies and uncover the truth is to spotlight glaring discrepancies between public statements.
If you want to know how companies are misleading regulators, look at the difference between what they tell government officials and what they tell their own shareholders.
If you want to know how corporations swindle tax collectors, look at the difference between their boastful earnings statements to shareholders, and their miserly profit reports to the IRS.
It’s the same thing with the climate crisis — if you want to see how the system of climate denial imperceptibly defrauds the public on a day-to-day basis, look at the difference between what the federal government is saying to retirees […]
Stephan: In contrast to the previous story demonstrating what Trump and the Republicans are doing consider this being done by the Democrats. As I tell my readers again and again, I don't care about partisan politics except as an anthropological phenomenon. What I care about and support are policies that foster wellbeing, and the people who propose and implement such policies. I couldn't care less what badge they are wearing.
“Our nation’s pesticide laws have not kept up to keep us safe,” Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) said in a statement. Credit: Stephanie Chapman/Flickr
Democrats in the House and Senate on Tuesday introduced sweeping legislation that would ban some of the most toxic pesticides currently in use in the United States and institute stronger protections for farmworkers and communities that have been exposed to damaging chemicals by the agriculture industry.
“It is long past time for the United States Congress to turn attention to this issue and put the health and safety of our families above the profits of large corporations.” —Sen. Tom Udall
The Protect America’s Children from Toxic Pesticide Act of 2020, sponsored by Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.), was applauded by environmentalists as a “bold and much-needed” step in the right direction.
“The pesticide industry and chemical agriculture have for far too long been able to abuse legal loopholes allowing for the use of toxic pesticides that have not been adequately tested to make sure they are safe for people and the environment,” said Scott Faber, senior vice president […]
