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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 again, New Zealand, the most interesting country in the world shows that creating social policy that fosters wellbeing works, is quicker, and cheaper. When you realize that coronavirus cases are going up in many parts of the U.S., and 1000 people a day are still dying, you get a sense of what New Zealand has accomplished.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks to media. Credit: Hagen Hopkins/Getty
Due to a mixture of strict quarantine, travel restrictions and widespread testing, New Zealand has reported no new coronavirus cases for 17 days and has no active cases. The country plans to lift nearly all of its restrictions Tuesday.
Due to a mixture of strict quarantine, travel restrictions and widespread testing, New Zealand has reported no new coronavirus cases for 17 days and has no active cases. The country plans to lift nearly all of its restrictions Tuesday.
KEY FACTS
The last community-transmitted case occurred 40 days ago and New Zealand hospitals currently have no Covid-19 cases.
Beginning Tuesday, the country will allow schools and offices to reopen with no limitations on domestic travel or gathering size, though international travel remains restricted, per CNN.
“This freedom from restrictions relies though heavily on the ongoing role that our border controls will play in keeping the virus out,” said Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at a Monday press conference.”The virus will be in our world for some time to come.”
New Zealand had one of the toughest and earliest lockdowns: […]
Stephan: Even though the president and his Trumpers have largely ignored the self-isolation regime, we still saved thousands of lives because most people did listen to the scientists and doctors. Here is the data, and consider New Zealand.
A large group of people wearing medical face masks amidst the novel Coronavirus outbreak (Ben Hasty/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle/Getty
A new study reveals that roughly 60 million Americans were saved from novel coronavirus infections as a result of the shutdown orders implemented throughout the United States during the pandemic. That means about 18% of the country’s population avoided a coronavirus infection as a result, likely reducing the death toll by six or seven figures.
The report, which was published in the journal Nature, modeled infection and disease spread using well-established public health models. Researchers determined that, without public health–informed shutdown measures, early infection rates increased by 43 percent per day on average both in the United States and in five other countries including China, France, Iran, Italy and South Korea. (The authors noted that the average fell to 38 percent when Iran, which had an unusually high growth rate, was omitted from the […]
Stephan: Everything I read tells me we are far from out of the economic collapse we are in. The stock market may have gone up, but I think we are a long way off from returning to anything like what we used to call a "normal" economy.
China’s economy is reopening in the wake of the pandemic, and the country is almost alone in seeing growth this year, according to the World Bank Credit: AFP/Noel Celis
Washington (AFP) – The coronavirus pandemic inflicted a “swift and massive shock” that has caused the broadest collapse of the global economy since 1870 despite unprecedented government support, the World Bank said Monday.
The world economy is expected to contract by 5.2 percent this year — the worst recession in 80 years — but the sheer number of countries suffering economic losses means the scale of the downturn is worse than any recession in 150 years, the World Bank said in its latest Global Economic Prospects report.
“This is a deeply sobering outlook, with the crisis likely to leave long-lasting scars and pose major global challenges,” said World Bank Group Vice President for Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions Ceyla Pazarbasioglu.
The depth of the crisis will drive 70 to 100 million people into extreme poverty — worse than the prior estimate of 60 million, she told reporters.
And while the Washington-based development lender projects a rebound […]
Stephan: I have been warning my readers for a decade that about this time it was going to become clear how endangered coastal properties, were, and that this would have a very negative effect on real estate prices. I really hope that readers who own such property closely examine the situation in their area. This is not going to be uniform in any way, but it is going to be devastating when it hits.
U.S. taxpayers could be on the hook for billions of dollars in climate-related property losses as the government backs a growing number of mortgages on homes in the path of floods, fires and extreme weather.
Violent storms and sunny-day flooding are on the rise, and more houses are being built on at-risk land. But fewer people are buying federally backed flood insurance despite requirements that homeowners in flood plains be insured if their mortgage is backed by taxpayers.
In short, the government’s biggest housing subsidies — mortgage guarantees and flood insurance — are on course to hit taxpayers and the housing market as the effects of climate change worsen, a POLITICO analysis finds. A series of disasters in a single region could trigger a full-blown housing crash.
“Where catastrophe happens and physical climate really manifests itself, the public tab will end up carrying this,” said Ivan Frishberg, vice president for sustainability banking with Amalgamated Bank. “Everyone is exposed in this. I’ve had conversations with all of the big banks and we are kind of all aware of this.”
Stephan: Tonight my wife and I watched an hour of China Global Television Network America, a channel controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. I have been doing this regularly, and I wanted to see how Ronlyn would react. and she wanted to see how what America has become was playing on the dominant Asian media source. She saw what I saw. You can make very powerful propaganda by telling the truth. All the images and interviews on the CGT are authentic and factual. You see the same thing on your television. This is America's truth. But the effect on America's stature in the world is devastating.
TOPSHOT – Police officers clash with protestors near the White House on June 1, 2020. Credit: Jose Luis Magana / AFP) / ALTERNATE CROP
When massive protests broke out in Hong Kong last year over a contentious extradition bill, part of a pattern of Chinese encroachment on the semiautonomous city, senior U.S. officials including President Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued calls for security forces and Beijing to respect the rights of protesters and listen to their demands.
Less than a year later, with the world’s attention captured by images of U.S. authorities using tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets to crack down on protesters against racism and police brutality, China and other U.S. rivals have seized the opportunity to highlight U.S. domestic turbulence and accuse Washington of hewing to double standards.
Over the past week — as Americans flooded the streets of major cities in response to the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis last week after a white officer knelt on his neck […]
Stephan: You can understand why fascist administrations like Trump's, do not like facts or a free press. Because when there are facts like these, you don't want anyone to know them.
About half of trash generated in the US is unaccounted for. Credit: Jeff Smith/Alamy
The US is far behind other industrialized nations on environmental performance and now ranks 24th in the world, according to a new analysis by Yale and Columbia universities.
Denmark came in first place, followed by Luxembourg and Switzerland. The United Kingdom ranked fourth.
The findings come as the Trump administration has continued to weaken environmental protections in a quest to relax rules on industry and expand fossil fuel development which threatens to put the country even further behind its peers.
Donald Trump has called himself a “big believer in the environment” and insisted he wants “the cleanest water, the cleanest air” but in the Environmental Performance Index’s two-decade history, including during his presidency, the US has never risen to the top of the rankings.
“Countries that make an effort do better than those that don’t and the US right now is not making an effort. That shows up in a stagnation in the rankings where others are really seeing […]
Stephan: In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the largest civil rights outcry since the Civil Rights, and anti-Viet Nam War protests, Donald Trump decided to further destroy the world ecosystem, at a time when it is already collapsing.
This man is so despicable I just don't have the right words to express my contempt for him.
BANGOR, MAINE — Today, President Donald Trump traveled to Bangor, Maine to issue a proclamation that opens up the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument to commercial fishing, threatening the destruction of this sensitive, biologically important marine reserve. It’s the latest in a long list of Trump’s environmental attacks launched under cover of national and international crises.
The Northeast Canyons and Seamounts off the New England coast was the first national marine monument to be designated in the Atlantic Ocean and is one of just five marine monuments nationwide. It protects 4,913 square miles of pristine ocean ecosystem – an area nearly the size of Connecticut, covering 1.5 percent of U.S. federal waters on the Atlantic Coast.
Trump tried to justify his action by claiming that designation of the monument by President Barack Obama in September 2016 under the Antiquities Act of 1906 was bad for fishing in the region.
But in fact, a 2018 study of data from the region showed that catch and revenue from some species […]
Stephan: How sick is the Trumper world? Here's a pretty good answer.
I have never met George Soros, but from 1981 to 1993, when I was involved with Russia, through citizen diplomacy, and a series of joint ventures, I spent about four months a year some years, in Russia. In that time I got to know and worked with a number of Soros' folk. And I will tell you this. George Soros and Donald Kendall CEO of Pepsi Cola, were the only two major American financial players who became involved with trying to nurture democracy in Russia. And no one exceeded Soros, who poured several hundred million dollars into the effort. I developed incredible respect for the man, and what he had done with his life.
That he was eventually overcome by the rise of the oligarchs, and the power takeover by KGB guys, like Putin, is not his fault. It happened, in my view, because most of the U.S. State Department, supported by America's corporate oligarchs, would not put down their cold war prejudices until it was too late to matter.
The posts are similar in nature and tone to some of the racist posts by local GOP officials in recent days that suggested the killing of Floyd in Minneapolis police custody was done with the intent of starting a race war or to erode black support for President Donald Trump. The posts from those local officials have prompted calls for resignation from the state’s top GOP officials.
One post from Miller on Sunday included an image of Soros with accompanying text that read, “Climate change didn’t work. Impeachment didn’t work. The virus didn’t work. Start the race war.”
“The man is pure evil!” Miller commented.
“Folks this is not a protest,” read another post from early Sunday morning. “It is a well orchestrated attack on America’s major cities with plans to attack the […]
