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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.
Catherine Rampell, Columnist - The Washington Post
Stephan: It is very painful to learn that all the lies that you have been telling yourself about yourself are just that, lies. And that is true whether it is an individual or a country. In the years of Trump we have become just like Trump himself: Fat, too rich for our own good, corrupt, dishonest, and incompetent. And about 40% of us just can't seem to admit that to themselves. But the facts are the facts.
Americans’ belief in American exceptionalism is declining — and that could be a good thing.
National narcissism has rendered us complacent, even impotent, in the face of multiple crises.
On our biggest societal problems, the United States seems to have given up. Not because we can’t do better — but because many political leaders, particularly Republicans, apparently don’t think we need to. Their faith that America is already Living Its Best Life means there’s no need to learn from peer countries, or even gauge our relative performance. Consider:
Most of the rest of the developed world has managed to get covid-19′s spread under control. New cases across the European Union have plummeted; in New Zealand, the virus has been virtually wiped out. These and other places that have successfully mitigated the spread have enabled more citizens to safely return to their pre-covid-19 lifestyles, including even attending athletic events with packed crowds.AD
Instead, they simply declare the virus vanquished, even as it claims more lives.
“There is no second wave coming,” White House economic adviser Larry […]
Stephan: Trump is a liar, and a man whose central tactic is to create false dichotomies, and nowhere is that clearer than in Trump's attempt to spread disinformation to discredit mail-in voting. The facts: Trump votes by mail. Mike Pence votes by mail. Most of the scum serving in Trump's cabinet vote by mail. But they sure don't want you to vote by mail because they know that if you can vote by mail, the Republicans at every level will lose. And so these lies.
Happily, I was wrong about Kentucky. It appears so many people voted by mail that they did not have a repeat of the Georgia debacle.
President Donald Trump delivers the commencement address at the 2020 U.S. Military Academy Graduation Ceremony at West Point on June 13, 2020.
President Donald Trump is continuing to push back against the idea of expanding mail-in voting for the upcoming 2020 elections, baselessly arguing that the practice is rife with fraud.
Many voting experts and lawmakers are hoping to expand mail-in (or absentee) voting due to concerns some voters have of voting in-person due to the coronavirus, or the possibility that infection rates could rise again by November and thus deter voter participation.
Trump, however, tweeted on Monday morning that foreign nations could interfere with U.S. elections by producing counterfeit ballots.
“RIGGED 2020 ELECTION: MILLIONS OF MAIL-IN BALLOTS WILL BE PRINTED BY FOREIGN COUNTRIES, AND OTHERS,” the president wrote in all capital letters. “IT WILL BE THE SCANDAL OF OUR TIMES!”
Trump added onto his baseless allegations later in the morning in a separate tweet.
“Because of MAIL-IN BALLOTS, 2020 will be the most RIGGED Election in our nations [sic] history — unless this stupidity is ended,” Trump wrote. “We voted during […]
Stephan: Very few seem to be paying attention to this, but I think it is very important. Debt is how Putin and the Russian oligarchs operating through Deutsche Bank, arranged for hundreds of millions of dollars of loans. Now those loans are beginning to come due. How do you think Trump will deal with that? His businesses are not doing well. If he loses the election what will he be able to do? Should he win, what do you think he will be willing to do. Stay tuned, I am paying attention.
Win or lose in November, one thing won’t change for Donald Trump: Over the next few years, his company must settle a series of whopping debts. Before the end of a theoretical second term, his company will have to refinance—or, in a far less likely scenario, pay off—nearly a half-billion dollars in loans linked to some of his most prized assets, including Trump Tower. These debts are maturing at a perilous moment for Trump, whose hotels and resorts have been plagued by declining revenues. And that was before the coronavirus pandemic pummeled the hospitality industry in general and the Trump Organization in particular, forcing the full or partial closure of most of its hotel and resort properties.
On financial disclosure forms, Trump has reported holding 14 loans on 12 properties. At least six of those loans, representing about $479 million in debt, are due over the next four years. Some are guaranteed by Trump himself, meaning a creditor could come after his personal—not corporate—assets if he defaults. If he holds onto the White House, the refinancing of these […]
Stephan: I am writing this at 1 a.m. Pacific Time, and by the time you read it the polls in Kentucky will probably be experiencing another election disaster like the one that occurred the other day in Georgia. Jefferson County, has 767,000 people and only one polling place. You do the math.
The Republican Party does not like democracy, and is doing everything in its power to sabotage the election process. I was happy to learn some while back that Andy Beshear, the governor, and a Democrat, had expanded vote-by-mail, but not surprised that thousands who had requested ballots but had not received them, and will have to go to a polling place if they want to vote. By tonight we will know the reality.
I think it is reasonable to ask how the richest country in the world cannot seem to run an election?
Senate candidate Charles Booker votes at the Kentucky Expo Center. Credit: Pat McDonogh/AP
On Tuesday, Kentucky voters will determine which Democrat will challenge Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in November. Recent events have tightened the primary into a competitive race: In March, eight police officers barged into Breonna Taylor’s apartment in Louisville with a battering ram and fatally shot her. According to polling, voters outraged over Taylor’s killing and propelled by the national uprising against systemic racism have narrowed the gap between progressive Charles Booker, a Black state representative with a message about racial justice, and former Marine Amy McGrath, a moderate Democrat.
But the threat of the coronavirus pandemic, coupled with decisions by election officials to close thousands of polling places across Kentucky, leaves many of those newly energized voters in a bind.
After Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear delayed the primary from mid-May to June 23 in response to the coronavirus pandemic, he issued an executive order requiring the Board of Elections to expand voting by mail, permit early voting, and limit contact among […]
Jackson Diehl, Deputy Editorial Page Editor - The Washington Post
Stephan: I have been telling my readers since Trump was but a candidate that Putin needs Trump, as much as Trump needs Putin, and the oligarchs around him. The Russian economy is entirely oil and gas dependent. When was the last time you heard about anyone buying a Russian refrigerator, smartphone, or outboard motor? The country under Putin has become a kleptocratic shell. Jackson Diehl has it dead on.
Putin and Trump
Vladimir Putin is suffering through his worst year in two decades in power. The coronavirus is raging across Russia, which has reported more than half a million cases and 8,100 deaths and is suspected of hiding many more. The economy is crashing so steeply that the government failed to issue a monthly gross domestic product report in May for the first time in 15 years. Putin’s foolish launching of an oil price war with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman made a bad recession worse.
Forced to postpone a referendum that would allow him to remain in office until 2036, Putin is now going ahead with it on July 1, and no doubt it will be rigged to produce the right result. But his poll ratings are the lowest they have been since he was installed as Boris Yeltsin’s prime minister and successor in 1999.
Worst of all, from Putin’s point of view, his vaunted foreign policy, aimed at restoring Russia’s global influence with bold gambits and deft maneuvering, has hit […]
Stephan: Schwartz' first law of climate change: Whatever is cited it will occur more quickly than predicted, and the results will be much worse than anticipated. We are way past metaphors such as alarm bell, flashing lights, etc. We are headed to a catastrophe for which in most of the country we are utterly unprepared.
A past summer thaw in Verkhoyansk, a Siberian town in Russia. The town normally has an average high of 68 degrees in June but recorded a temp of 100.4 degrees on Saturday. Credit: Dean Conger/Corbis/Getty
A small town in Siberia reached a temperature of 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit on Saturday, which, if verified, would mark the hottest temperature ever recorded north of the Arctic Circle.
The town of Verkhoyansk is one of the coldest towns on Earth — temperatures dropped to nearly 60 degrees below zero there this past November — and the average June high temperature is 68 degrees.
The Washington Post reports that while there are questions about the accuracy of the record temperature, a Saturday weather balloon launch that found unusually high temperatures in […]
Stephan: Virginia Beach city County, VA, the largest city in the commonwealth, is politically split. In the last election it voted 44.8% Democrat and 48.4% Republican, with the remaining 6.8% voting Independent. I am publishing this story because Virginia Beach demonstrates how weird America's response to climate change has become. The projections about the effect of climate change, and the role of carbon emissions on the area are quite clear. About 30% of the county/city's landmass is likely to be submerged. So, faced with that, this article illustrates the hoops that those wanting to prepare for climate change have to go through when about half of the people don't even want to use the words, climate change. This country is going to have a very hard time, with a lot of unnecessary suffering, and death, because a large percentage of us don't live in a fact-based world.
Jon Baranowski and his family play in the flooded parking lot of the Virginia Beach Fishing Center in Virginia Beach, Va., as Hurricane Dorian passes through Hampton Roads on Friday, Sept. 6, 2019. Credit: Stephen M. Katz/The Virginian-Pilot /AP
VIRGINIA BEACH, VIRGINIA — In Virginia Beach, sea level rise is a real and existential threat. And city officials aren’t afraid to say so.
For years, they have worked to develop complex — and expensive — initiatives they hope will safeguard the city from some of the most worrying flood projections.
In all of their recent preparations, however, city staff have steered clear of what most experts say is causing the tides to creep higher and higher. By design, they rarely, if ever, utter the words “climate change” — and they specifically avoid attributing any such change directly to humans.
“We don’t want to be stuck in the middle of arguments,” explained C.J. Bodnar, a city engineer who is helping lead Virginia Beach’s outreach efforts. “I can show you the gauge information to show you that, yes, sea level rise is happening. But […]
Stephan: I wrote this, so will let it speak for itself.
I can’t speak for you, but as I watch day-by-day, the thing that stands out for me is that we are asking a relatively small group of men and women to both save us and put their lives on the line. And yet we are failing them in almost every way. What kind of mental space do you have to be in not to see this? I will never forget the images of ER personnel cutting holes in 50-gallon trashbags and putting them on because they didn’t have enough proper PPE gear. The only thing comparable is going into combat knowing you might be killed or crippled in some way that would dominate the rest of your life and doing it anyway. That is real heroism. I think there should be some kind of national recognition, something special.
But because of those images, and that reality, what I want to talk about is the failure of the system that put these people in that position. If you stress a system to its limits, its strengths, but also its faults and weaknesses quickly become very apparent. Every engineer and physician knows that. Can anyone doubt that the healthcare system in the United […]
