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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.
Seven U.S. states depend on the Colorado River, and a significant share of our agriculture is made possible by that water. It is drying up, and we are not properly preparing for what is coming.
Colorado River
The Colorado River makes life possible in many Western cities and supports agriculture that sustains people throughout the country. Most of the river’s water begins as snowmelt from the mountainous watersheds of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming, and a warming climate will drastically reduce these streamflows, new research finds.
Researchers from Desert Research Institute (DRI), USGS, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory teamed up for the new study, published May 23 in Nature Water. By applying warming to historical conditions for the East River in Colorado and using computer simulations to observe the impact on streamflow and groundwater levels, the scientists found that groundwater storage would fall to the lowest known levels after the first extremely dry year and fail to recover even after multiple wet periods. When groundwater levels fall, streamflows are drawn into the water table instead of contributing to Colorado River flows.
“We found that groundwater matters a lot,” says Rosemary Carroll, Ph.D., DRI research professor of hydrology and lead author of the study. “Even with historically observed wet periods in the model, the groundwater can’t […]
If you read me regularly you know that for a decade based on my calculations I have estimated that at least three million Americans are going to be displaced by climate change. Apparently, over three million were in 2022 just from climate emergencies. This is the best assessment of what this is going to mean that I have read.
On the Move: The Overheating Earth and the Uprooting of America. Published by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2024
A 2022 report from the International Panel on Climate Change observed that more than 3.3 billion people around the world are “highly vulnerable to climate change.” And more than one billion people could be exposed to “coastal-specific climate hazards by 2050.”
Here in the U.S., the Census Bureau calculated that 3.2 million adults were displaced or evacuated due to natural disasters of all kinds in 2022. And while climate migration is not easily measurable, as there are multiple factors involved, it is no doubt happening.
Investigative reporter at Politico Abrahm Lustgarten delved into the topic of U.S. climate migration in his new book, On The Move: The Overheating Earth and the Uprooting of America. Seeking to understand what climate migration might look like over the next few decades, Lustgarten used data and reporting from places across the country such as New York City, California, Arizona, Chicago, Texas and the Gulf Coast, the Isle de […]
Caitlin Gibson, Feature Writer - The Washington Post
Stephan:
Most people seem to think reincarnation is just an Asian religious belief, and it is that. But it is also a scientifically objectively verified reality and I am glad to see the public perception about this is changing. I find it interesting that a story of this length would appear in one of the most important newspapers in the U.S. It is a report on the work of a good friend, professor and physician Jim Tucker, head of the University of Virginia’s Division of Perceptual Studies. This reincarnation research is unique and the best body of work on this subject in the world. Begun by another friend, the late professor and physician Ian Stevenson, it has been going on now for two generations. If you want to know what science knows about reincarnation I recommend the books by Stevenson and Tucker. The idea that there is continuity of consciousness will change your perspective on life.
Jim Tucker leads the University of Virginia’s Division of Perceptual Studies. Each year, about 120 families contact DOPS about their children’s past-life recollections. Credit: Justin Ide / The Washington Post
In the beginning, it seemed like Nina was just an imaginary friend.
Two-year-old Aija had invented plenty of fictional characters before, but her parents — Ross, a musician, and Marie, a psychologist — noticed right away that Nina was different. (The family spoke to The Washington Post on the condition that only their middle names be used because of the sensitivity of the subject and because Aija is a young child.) From the time Aija learned how to talk, she talked about Nina, and her descriptions were remarkably consistent. Aija told her parents that Nina played piano, and she loved dancing, and she favored the color pink (Aija emphatically did not). When Aija spoke asNina, in the first person, Aija’s demeanor changed: Her voice was sweeter […]
David Badash, Senior Editor - New Civil Rights Movement
Stephan:
I wonder what it is going to take before MAGAt world voters wake up to the fact that the people they are committed to do not want democracy to continue in the United States. We have a Speaker of the House who is a liar, and a christofascist. He knows what he is saying is not true, and he knows that you cannot have an operational democracy in the United States without a fair and honorable DOJ. He doesn’t care about that as he himself says. What he wants is the world criminal Trump describes. Is that what you want?
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson publicly stating he wants to dismantle American democracy.
The embattled Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is vowing to use the arsenal of tools at his disposal, including defunding, to target the U.S. Dept. of Justice after ex-president Donald Trump was convicted in a New York State prosecution on 34 felony charges last week.
In a Tuesday meeting behind closed doors with his House Republican conference members, Johnson said “he will do everything he can to go after the Department of Justice,” CNN reported, “and said the verdict has ignited support for the former president, two sources familiar with the comments told CNN.”
The Speaker “presented a three-pronged approach of oversight, funding and legislation,” and “specifically walked through the funding cuts that House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan has proposed to the Appropriations Committee, the sources added.”
Just as U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz did Tuesday morning in a House Judiciary Committee hearing with Attorney General Merrick Garland, Speaker Johnson conflated the State of New York’s prosecution with the federal […]
This is the best most meticulous research paper I have seen about religion in the United States. The one thing that stands out for me is the perversion of Christianity into christofascism by the evangelical fundamentalist movement.
Executive Summary
America encompasses a rich diversity of faith traditions, and “religious churning” is very common. In 2023, PRRI surveyed more than 5,600 adults across the United States about their experiences with religion. This report examines how well major faith traditions retain their members, the reasons people disaffiliate, and the reasons people attend religious services. Additionally, this report considers how atheists and agnostics differ from those who say they are “nothing in particular.” Finally, it analyzes the prevalence of charismatic elements as well as prophecy and prosperity theology in American churches and the role of charismatic Christianity in today’s Republican Party.
“Unaffiliated” is the only major religious category experiencing growth.
Around one-quarter of Americans (26%) identify as religiously unaffiliated in 2023, a 5 percentage point increase from 21% in 2013. Nearly one in five Americans (18%) left a religious tradition to become religiously unaffiliated, over one-third of whom were previously Catholic (35%) and mainline/non-evangelical Protestant (35%).
While the percentage of Americans who describe themselves as “nothing in particular” is similar to a decade ago (16% in 2013 to 17% in 2023), the numbers of […]
Robert Faturechi, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski, Reporters - ProPublica
Stephan:
If Michael Cohen went to prison for three years for serving Felon Trump’s interests in the Stormy Daniels episode, shouldn’t the boss, the man who has now been convicted for setting the whole scheme up also go to prison for the same thing? I certainly think so.
Nine witnesses in the criminal cases against former President Donald Trump have received significant financial benefits, including large raises from his campaign, severance packages, new jobs, and a grant of shares and cash from Trump’s media company.
The benefits have flowed from Trump’s businesses and campaign committees, according to a ProPublica analysis of public disclosures, court records and securities filings. One campaign aide had his average monthly pay double, from $26,000 to $53,500. Another employee got a $2 million severance package barring him from voluntarily cooperating with law enforcement. And one of the campaign’s top officials had her daughter hired onto the campaign staff, where she is now the fourth-highest-paid employee.
These pay increases and other benefits often came at delicate moments in the legal proceedings against Trump. One aide who was given a plum position on the board of Trump’s social media company, for example, got the seat after he was subpoenaed but before he testified.
Significant changes to a staffer’s work situation, such as bonuses, pay raises, firings or promotions, can be evidence of a crime if they come outside the normal course of business. To prove witness tampering, […]
As this article describes climate change is going to have all kinds of effects that no one except a few medical researchers has even thought about. Yet still American politicians, with a few exceptions, blather away endlessly over political disinformation so they can stay in power and rig the government to serve the interests of corporations, and oligarchs to whom they are whoring themselves, as well as to serve the interests of Felon Trump.
Primary Source
Lancet Neurology
Source Reference: opens in a new tab or windowSisodiya SM, et al “Climate change and disorders of the nervous system” Lancet Neurol 2024; DOI: 10.1016/S1474-4422(24)00087-5.
Secondary Source
Lancet Neurology
Source Reference: opens in a new tab or windowJunck L, et al “Neurology and climate change” Lancet Neurol 2024; DOI: 10.1016/S1474-4422(24)00144-3.
Human Brain Credit: Med Page Today
“The scale of potential effects of climate change on neurological diseases is likely to be substantial,” wrote epilepsy researcher Sanjay Sisodiya, PhD, of University College London, and co-authors in a Lancet Neurologyopens in a new tab or window essay.
In a review of 332 articles that spanned several decades, Sisodiya and colleagues found that the incidence, prevalence, and severity of many neurologic conditions were affected by climate change.
In some countries, including the U.S. and South Korea, rising temperatures and humidity extremes were associated with higher ischemic stroke incidence, they reported. In other countries, cold periods upped the risk of intracerebral hemorrhage.
Multiple sclerosis patients reported worse symptoms when temperatures were higher than the long-term average, they added. Migraine admissions to the emergency department rose when days were hotter. Regional climate-related conditions have been associated with tick-borne encephalitis and mosquito-borne infections, and in several countries, Alzheimer’s- and dementia-related hospital admissions increased when temperatures climbed.
Climate shifts that affected neurologic disorders included both low […]
Summer Said and Benoit Faucon, Reporters - Microsoft Start / The Wall Street Journal
Stephan:
Expect your cost of gasoline to go up; where we live it is now over $5 a gallon. OPEC+, as this article describes, wants to feed their greed by cutting back on production. I also think that the Saudis, who have given Felon Trump’s family billions of dollars, also want the price of gas to go up so that it hurts Biden’s chance of being re-elected.
OPEC+ Agrees to Extend Production Cuts in Bid to Boost Oil Prices. Credit: The Wall Street Journal
OPEC+ on Sunday agreed to extend all production curbs into next year, a deal that likely signals oil prices will remain elevated through the U.S. presidential election.
The agreement comes on the same day the group’s kingpin, Saudi Arabia, launched a giant sale of shares in its national oil champion that will yield billions to help fund the kingdom’s economic transformation.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, together known as OPEC+, agreed to keep collective curbs through next year. The group has longstanding official reductions of 3.66 million barrels a day.
The new deal includes the United Arab Emirates securing another upgrade to its official production quota, by 300,000 barrels a day. The UAE’s new official quota will be gradually phased in starting in January and stand at 3.519 million barrels a day by September 2025.
Eight top producers in the group also agreed to continue voluntary cuts separately into 2025, currently around 2.2 million barrels […]
