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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Stephan: This article is a year out of date but its descriptions and conclusions still hold, and the data it cites has only gotten worse.
There are really two issues here: 1) The incredible violence of the police in the United States, unmatched in any other developed nation in the world. In fact, if you added up the police killings in every European country taken together; it would still only be a fraction of the American total. 2) The wildly disproportionate portion of this violence that is aimed at non-White Americans. Here is some actual data on both aspects of this problem.
On Tuesday 6 August, the police shot and killed a schoolteacher outside his home in Shaler Township, Pennsylvania. He had reportedly pointed a gun at the officers. In Grants Pass, Oregon, that same day, a 39-year-old man was shot and killed after an altercation with police in the state police office. And in Henderson, Nevada, that evening, an officer shot and injured a 15-year-old suspected of robbing a convenience store. The boy reportedly had an object in his hand that the police later confirmed was not a deadly weapon.
In the United States, police officers fatally shoot about three people per day on average, a number that’s close to the yearly totals for other wealthy nations. But data on these deadly encounters have been hard to come by.
A pair of high-profile killings of unarmed black men by the police pushed this reality into the headlines in summer 2014. Waves of public protests broke out after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and the death by chokehold of Eric Garner in New York City.
Justin Baragona, Contributing Editor - The Daily Beast
Stephan: I had the good fortune to be educated at a private boys' school. And in my school, we had a boy like Tucker Carlson. Whenever in later years I heard someone describe their own experiences there was always at least one in their school too. They looked a little too good of a type; they knew how to behave towards mothers and schoolmasters. But they were at the same time sanctimonious, hypocritical, and rather nasty, particularly with less advantaged, and younger boys. Tucker Carlson is so extreme he is self-parody of the type.
He is a puppet for the most successful disinformation and propaganda operation in the world. That's really the point here. Whatever the megaphone looks like I do not see deliberate disinformation as any different than crying fire in a crowded theater to use the cliché. This is an issue we need to talk about because this trend has changed American society. It is an explicit manifestation of willful ignorance. It takes a certain kind of person to do this.
Fox lie spreader Tucker Carlson
Fox News host Tucker Carlson took aim at Dr. Anthony Fauci on Tuesday night, unleashing a furious tirade against the top infectious disease expert, whom he called the “chief buffoon.”
Piggybacking on Sen. Rand Paul’s criticism of Fauci at Tuesday’s Senate hearing on the coronavirus pandemic, Carlson said the Republican lawmaker was right to complain about experts’ predictions about the virus.
“A lot of wrong predictions have come out of Washington on the question of the coronavirus, and quite a few of them came directly from Dr. Fauci himself. We are not singling him out or attacking him,” the Fox News star declared before devoting the next few minutes to directly attacking the White House coronavirus task force member.
Carlson proceeded to point out some of the positions Fauci has shifted on throughout the crisis, such as on face masks. After playing a clip of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease director saying in March that “there’s no reason for people to be walking around in a mask” at that time, Carlson appeared to liken Fauci to a false […]
Stephan: When I first heard about this story, all I could think of was: How many Americans didn't need to die yet did so only because of the incompetence and just sheer callous nastiness of Trump and his Igors? Tens of thousands? We will never know, but we do know this. It is one of the worst and most lethal disasters in American history -- and it was all created by Trump.
PPE Masks
Progressives on Saturday denounced an “infuriating” report that detailed the Department of Health and Human Services’ refusal to take an American company up on its offer to supply millions of N95 respirators to the government early on in the coronavirus pandemic.
TheWashington Post reported that federal scientist Rick Bright, who filed a whistleblower complaint last week over his demotion following his criticism of the Trump administration’s response to the pandemic, detailed communications with Prestige Ameritech in January in which HHS ignored the medical supply company’s offer to produce masks.
The head of the Fort Worth-based company, Michael Bowen, wrote to HHS on Jan. 23, two days after the U.S. confirmed its first case of COVID-19.
Bowen offered to use four dormant production lines to produce as many as seven million N95 masks per month, but was told by Laura Wolf, director of the Division of Critical Infrastructure Protection at HHS, “I don’t believe we as a government are anywhere near answering those questions for you yet.”
“We are the last major domestic mask company,” replied Bowen, who at the time was fulfilling orders for masks from all over […]
Stephan: "2,909 Americans gave up their citizenship in the first 3 months of 2020" this report says. It is not that large a number, but it is the largest on record, and the fact that even these numbers exist at all tells us that an almost unimaginable trend is really beginning. The best estimates are that between 3.6 and 4.2 million Americans are ex-pats; Americans whose principal residence is outside of the United States. But most years in the past few of them gave up their citizenship because they believed that if things went bad they could "go back to the States." I have known a number of them, including my sister. But what if the U.S. is not the place to go to ground but, instead, a place with which you don't want to have a connection? That's what these numbers are telling us.
Americans are renouncing their citizenship at the highest levels on record, according to research by the Enrolled Agents and accountants Bambridge Accountants New York.
· 2,909 Americans gave up their citizenship in the first 3 months of 2020
· Showing a 1,015% increase on the prior 3 months to December 2019 where only 261 cases were recorded
· 2,072 Americans gave up their citizenship in 2019 in total
· This is the highest quarter on record, the previous record was 2,365 cases for the fourth quarter of 2016
· It seems that the pandemic has motivated U.S. expats to cut ties and avoid the onerous tax reporting
Americans must pay a $2,350 government fee to renounce their citizenship, and those based overseas must do so in person at the U.S. Embassy in their country.
There are an estimated 9 million U.S. expats. The trend has been that there has been a steep decline over the last few years for U.S. citizens expatriating – the first 3 months of 2020 is a huge increase in the number of Americans renouncing their citizenship.
Stephan: You have probably heard that financial analysts largely feel that at least one American airline will go out of business as a result of the pandemic. Currently planes are flying with an average of 10% of their normal passengers. But that is only part of the new normal. If you travel abroad how are you likely to be received?
ROME — Travel has been one of the most deeply gutted industries of the global coronavirus pandemic, so it should come as no surprise that many countries that rely on it for so much of their GDP are getting anxious about when they can start opening up. But travel is not just about the destination. Getting away is also a way of life for millions of people who take breaks for self-indulgence, prestige, or cultural enrichment. And with the dream of the “immunity passport” for those who have successfully conquered COVID-19 increasingly unreliable this soon in the pandemic, travel may be annoyingly restrictive for some time to come.
One thing is sure: Gone are the days of the American abroad, at least for those hoping to summer in Europe this year. The new models on how to reopen European travel do not have room for the American tourist for the foreseeable future.
The European Union is set to release new guidelines called “Europe Needs a Break” on Wednesday that will recommend replacing travel bans with what they are […]
Stephan: Doctors without Borders is deservedly famous for its heroic efforts in third world countries amongst desperate and impoverished people, but this story is about this brave organization responding to the urgent and unmet needs of Native Americans in the United States. That this medical field team had to come to the Navajo Nation in Arizona and the Pueblos in New Mexico to help them because they were ignored is, or should be, humiliating to every American. It shows yet again the racism and callousness of Trump and his administration.
Navajo Reservation in Arizona Credit: Guardian
Doctors Without Borders has sent a team to help the Navajo Nation battle the coronavirus outbreak in a rare mission within the U.S., the organization confirmed on Tuesday.
Doctors Without Borders spokesman Nico D’Auterive told The Hill that nine professionals were sent to assist the Navajo population in the southwest U.S. in April. The professionals will stay until at least the end of June.
The international group typically sends health professionals to conflict zones around the world during medical disasters, and the coronavirus pandemic marks the first time it has dispatched teams within the U.S.
“At the moment, Doctors Without Borders is focused on providing technical guidance to health care facilities and organizations to assist with infection prevention and control,” D’Auterive said in a statement.
Jean Stowell, the head of the U.S. COVID-19 response team, told CBS News on Monday that the team consists of two physicians, three nurses and midwives, a water sanitation specialist, two logisticians and a health promoter.
“Situationally, the Native American communities are at a much higher risk for complications from COVID-19 and also from […]
Stephan: If you have been thinking that getting a viable vaccine will quickly solve this pandemic, I am sorry to tell you it ain't that simple. This story will give you some idea of what it is going to take.
Pharmacists used the vials shown March 16 to prepare syringes on the first day of a clinical trial of the potential vaccine for coronavirus at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle. Credit: Ted S. Warren/AP Photo
Meeting the overwhelming demand for a successful coronavirus vaccine will require a historic amount of coordination by scientists, drugmakers and the government.
The nation’s supply chain isn’t anywhere close to ready for such an effort.
The nation is already grappling with a shortage of the specialized glass used to make the vials that will store any vaccine. Producing and distributing hundreds of millions of vaccine doses will also require huge quantities of stoppers — which are made by just a handful of companies — as well as needles and refrigeration units. Low stocks of any one of these components could slow future vaccination efforts, much as shortfalls of key chemicals delayed widespread coronavirus testing.
A massive manufacturing effort is already gearing up to produce hundreds of millions of doses of promising vaccines now in late-stage trials, as scientists and […]
Stephan: I am really concerned that families already desperately stressed financially, are going to find the price of food escalating to a point beyond their means. Like everything else about this pandemic the Trump administration's abject failure to prepare for or manage this crisis is going to render the lives of ordinary people impossibly difficult. I encourage you to think about gardening, even if only on a balcony because I can see ordinary staples like lettuce going to $6-7 a head, and a half gallon of milk -- remember the millions of gallons thrown away because there was no plan to collect and distribute it -- going to $6. The virus is just one of the crises the country faces, or will face.
Meat, poultry and eggs led the price bump in April. Credit: Unsplash
In April, the prices Americans were paying for their groceries spiked by the highest percentage seen in nearly 50 years.
Today, the Labor Department reported that prices for groceries—also referred to as the “food at home” index—across the United States jumped by 2.6% in April, the highest single-month bump since February 1974, according to CNBC.
The spike in grocery prices is likely directly correlated to the spike in demand for the product. Grocery stores have been some of the only retailers around the country to keep their doors open during the coronavirus pandemic. And with restaurants closed to dine-in patrons, people have been eating at home more than ever, too.
In addition, there have been mounting concerns over the food supply chain, particularly in regard to the meat industry. The prices of meat products saw a particular spike: The cost of meats, poultry, fish and eggs jumped by 4.3%. However, the price increase was seen across food categories, though it was lower than the overall total. […]
I had the good fortune to be educated at a private boys' school. And in my school, we had a boy like Tucker Carlson. Whenever in later years I heard someone describe their own experiences there was always at least one in their school too. They looked a little too good of a type; they knew how to behave towards mothers and schoolmasters. But they were at the same time sanctimonious, hypocritical, and rather nasty, particularly with less advantaged, and younger boys. Tucker Carlson is so extreme he is self-parody of the type.
He is a puppet for the most successful disinformation and propaganda operation in the world. That's really the point here. Whatever the megaphone looks like I do not see deliberate disinformation as any different than crying fire in a crowded theater to use the cliché. This is an issue we need to talk about because this trend has changed American society. It is an explicit manifestation of willful ignorance. It takes a certain kind of person to do this. 
