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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.
Andrew Perez, Adam Rawnsley, Ryan Bort, Asawin Suebsaeng, Staff Writers - RollingStone
Stephan:
This is why it is so important that the jurors in criminal Trump’s latest trial remain anonymous. MAGAt world goaded on by Fox Propaganda and other MAGAt media are already trying to rig the trial of their leader and, as this article describes, these people are violent and dangerous.
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold and former President Donald Trump Credit: Hyoung Chang / The Denver Post / Getty and Joe Raedle / Getty
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, supported the unsuccessful effort to block former President Donald Trump from her state’s ballot — on the grounds that he had engaged in “insurrection” by inciting the violent Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. In return, she received an escalating torrent of abuse and violent threats.
In the seven months since Colorado residents first sued the state to keep Trump off the ballot, bringing Griswold in as a co-defendant, the number of serious threats leveled against Griswold increased more than 600 percent, according to data her office provided to Rolling Stone. The threats directed at Griswold spiked amid the high-profile Colorado court case designed to block Trump from the ballot under the 14th Amendment, which bars insurrectionists from holding office — an effort that was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court earlier […]
This is what healthcare for pregnant women in Republican-controlled states has come to. I find it horrifying that the politicians, overwhelmingly White men with no medical training, would choose to treat the women in their states with this vicious absence of care. If I were a pregnant woman I would move to a Democrat-controlled state, at least for the duration of my pregnancy where I would be treated properly as a human being.
Catholic hospitalCredit: David J. Phillip / AP Photo
One woman miscarried in the restroom lobby of a Texas emergency department (ED) as front desk staff refused to admit her. Another woman learned that her fetus had no heartbeat at a Florida hospital, the day after a security guard turned her away from the facility. And in North Carolina, a woman gave birth in a car after an ED couldn’t offer an ultrasound. The baby later died.
Complaints that pregnant women were turned away from U.S. EDs spiked in 2022 after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, federal documents obtained by the AP revealed.
The cases raise alarms about the state of emergency pregnancy care in the U.S., especially in states that enacted strict abortion laws and sparked confusion around the treatment doctors can provide.
“It is shocking, it’s absolutely shocking,” said Amelia Huntsberger, MD, an ob/gyn in Oregon. “It is appalling that someone would show up to an emergency room and not […]
Becky Bohrer and Matthew Daly, Reporters - Associated Press
Stephan:
Here is some good news from the Biden administration. I see it as another sign that the Democrats are serious about dealing with climate change, and are taking steps to end the carbon energy era. This will also preserve the ecology of Alaska and, thus, contribute to the wellbeing of the earth.
The area of Alaska that President Biden has saved. Credit: United States Geological Survey
JUNEAU, ALASKA — The Biden administration said Friday it will restrict new oil and gas leasing on 13 million acres (5.3 million hectares) of a federal petroleum reserve in Alaska to help protect wildlife such as caribou and polar bears as the Arctic continues to warm.
The approval of Willow drew fury from environmentalists, who said the large oil project violated President Joe Biden’s pledge to combat climate change. Friday’s decision also completes an earlier plan that called for closing nearly half the reserve to oil and gas leasing.
A group of Republican lawmakers, led by Alaska U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, jumped out ahead of Friday’s announcement about the […]
As I have been telling you for the 33 years I have been doing SR, of the options available in any situation fostering wellbeing is always the most efficient, most productive, most decent and, as this report confirms once again, the cheapest alternative. The fact that over and over American governance does not pick the option that fosters wellbeing is a measure of our society’s cruelty. We almost never foster wellbeing anymore which is why we are a culture in decline.
Homeless man. Credit: Adobe
As the cost of housing has exploded, so has the number of people experiencing homelessness. And unfortunately, instead of trying to house people, more states and cities are criminalizing people simply for lacking a safe place to sleep.
According to the National Homelessness Law Center, almost every state restricts the conduct of people experiencing homelessness. In Missouri, sleeping on state land is a crime. A new law in Florida bans people from sleeping on public property — and requires local governments without bed space for unhoused people to set up camps far away from public services.
Laura Gutowski, from Grants Pass, Oregon, lives in a tent near the home where she resided for 25 years. Soon after her husband unexpectedly passed away, she became unhoused. “It kind of all piled on at the same time,” she told Oregon Public Broadcasting. “Flipped my world upside down.”
Grants Pass, like most cities today, lacks enough […]
This is an appalling story showing Elon Musk to be a modern-day Benedict Arnold. I think he should lose his citizenship and be denied the right to do business in the United States. Americans made him a multi-billionaire, and he is now working to our detriment. Do I need to mention that no person who supports America and its democracy, should have anything to do with Starlink, or X? I hope not.
The Starlink logo on a mobile device with the colors of the Ukrainian flag in the background. Credit: Getty
Starlink terminals are being widely used by Russian forces in Ukraine, The Wall Street Journal reported.
A shadowy black market is enabling this, despite Elon Musk’s attempts to limit their military use.
Terminals are also being exported from Russia to countries like Sudan, via complex channels, it found.
Starlink terminals are being sold, shipped, and used in occupied Ukraine through a complex black market that also stretches as far as Sudan, The Wall Street Journal reported.
President Vladimir Putin’s forces are regularly using the technology, developed by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, to coordinate attacks in eastern Ukraine and Crimea, with the help of a complex informal network of black market sellers and Russian volunteers, the outlet reported.
The easy-to-activate hardware provided Ukraine with a boost early in Russia’s full-scale invasion, but according to the Journal, Putin’s forces have succeeded this year in bringing it to the battlefield at […]
Maximilian Kotz, Anders Levermann and Leonie Wenz, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Potsdam, Germany | - nature
Stephan:
I am beginning to see in the science literature a really serious analysis of the economic damage that is going to be wrought by climate change, and it is alarming. This paper in nature is quite technical but I decided to bring it to your attention to make this point. While the Republican/TCP cretins in the House behave like children fighting in kindergarten, the clock is ticking and the U.S. is not responding properly to protect social wellbeing damage this nature paper describes.
Abstract
Global projections of macroeconomic climate-change damages typically consider impacts from average annual and national temperatures over long time horizons1,2,3,4,5,6. Here we use recent empirical findings from more than 1,600 regions worldwide over the past 40 years to project sub-national damages from temperature and precipitation, including daily variability and extremes7,8. Using an empirical approach that provides a robust lower bound on the persistence of impacts on economic growth, we find that the world economy is committed to an income reduction of 19% within the next 26 years independent of future emission choices (relative to a baseline without climate impacts, likely range of 11–29% accounting for physical climate and empirical uncertainty). These damages already outweigh the mitigation costs required to limit global warming to 2 °C by sixfold over this near-term time frame and thereafter diverge strongly dependent on emission choices. Committed damages arise predominantly through changes in average temperature, but accounting for further climatic components raises estimates by approximately 50% and leads to stronger regional heterogeneity. Committed losses are projected for all regions except […]
As this interview report says, “The planet is getting hotter and the richest 1 percent of humanity accounts for more carbon emissions than the poorest 66 percent. Indeed, the interconnection between climate change and economic inequality has emerged as a central theme in serious economic analyses and a focal point of climate activism.” Much of this is a result of the Trump-Republican/TCP 2017 tax cut which was entirely rigged to support the rich and harm the poor. The Trump-Republican/TCP has already made it clear that if criminal Trump is elected they are going to try for further tax cuts for the rich and major reduction of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other social support programs. Vote for Trump and you are voting to degrade your own wellbeing.
Protesters gather at Greeley Square in Midtown Manhattan on November 27, 2017, in New York City. Credit: Erik McGregor / Ligthrocket / Getty
In the exclusive interview for Truthout that follows, progressive political economist James K. Boyce — who has just received the inaugural Global Inequality Research Award from Sciences Po and the World Inequality Lab for his groundbreaking work in the field of economic and environmental inequalities – explains the main causes behind the broad trend of rising inequality in the U.S. and globally, and how it is linked to environmental degradation.
However, as Boyce makes clear, environmental degradation does not impact everyone equally. […]
Andy Corbley, Founder and Editor of World At Large - Good News Network
Stephan:
Here is the next generation of EVs. This is very good news. Add roads that charge vehicles, and humans seriously move out of the carbon vehicle era.
Credit: Aptera / X
One of the most hotly anticipated concept cars in recent history, the Aptera solar-powered car took a large step towards reality recently as the first-ever production-grade body arrived at the company’s headquarters in San Diego.
This three-wheeler is advertised as containing 34 square feet of solar paneling that actually powers the car as it drives or while it’s parked, but so many aspects are completely new in a commercial automobile designed for mass production that extra precautions and preparations are needed before it can hit the road.
“We had so much fun last week celebrating a company milestone—the arrival of Aptera’s first production body in San Diego,” the company wrote in a post on X. “Now Team Aptera is back to work finalizing the cable routing, connectors, and placement of components in preparation for our first [production-intent] builds.”
According to Elektrek, the company has ordered all the parts for its production-intent battery packs, and other non-structural components are currently […]
