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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.
Listen to Marjorie Taylor Greene and you can hear a sitting Republican Congress member openly spew Russian propaganda on the House floor and in her interviews. The TCP/Republican Party has become a band of agents in Putin’s attempt to influence the American election.
Jesse Benton Credit: Gage Skidmore
A federal appeals court has upheld the conviction of a Republican operative who had been pardoned by Donald Trump in the waning days of his presidency.
The District of Columbia Circuit Court rejected an appeal by Jesse Benton, a former senior aide to Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Rand Paul, of his November 2022 conviction for orchestrating a scheme to conceal a $100,000 donation from a Russian national to his GOP consulting firm — and pocketing most of it.
Russian businessman Roman Vasilenko wired the money under his own name to the consulting firm, but Benton kept $75,000 for himself and gave $25,000 under his name to the presidential campaign for Trump, who posed for a photo with Vasilenko. Benton then filed a false report with the Federal Election Commission to conceal the source of the funds, the court found.
The Trump campaign was not aware of the true source of that donation.
Benton had appealed the conviction, saying Trump’s 2020 pardon should […]
More good news from the Biden administration, although the TCP/Republicans who whore for the carbon industries are trying to cripple what Biden’s Bureau of Land Management has done. If Trump were re-elected Biden’s positive wellbeing changes would all be reversed, so keep that in mind when you vote, and remind your friends and family. The wellbeing of all of us depends on Biden winning the election.
For decades, the federal government has prioritized oil and gas drilling, hardrock mining and livestock grazing on public lands across the country. That could soon change under a far-reaching Interior Department rule that puts conservation, recreation and renewable energy development on equal footing with resource extraction.
The final rule released Thursday represents a seismic shift in the management of roughly 245 million acres of public property — about one-tenth of the nation’s land mass. It is expected to draw praise from conservationists and legal challenges from fossil fuel industry groups and Republican officials, some of whom have lambasted the move as a “land grab.”
Interior’s Bureau of Land Management, known as the nation’s largest landlord, has long offered leases to oil and gas companies, mining firms and ranchers. Now, for the first time, the nearly 80-year-old agency will auction off “restoration leases” and “mitigation leases” to entities with plans to restore or conserve public lands.
“Today’s final rule helps restore balance to our public lands as we continue using the best-available science to restore habitats, guide strategic and responsible development, and sustain our public lands for generations to come,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a […]
More good news from the Biden administration, this time from the Department of Energy. These small changes don’t get much attention, basically none on television, and very little in newspapers, but it is small things like changing the efficiency of light bulbs that can have big effects on the wellbeing of society. This is why I am always on the lookout for these small transitions.
Credit:Doug Jones / Portland Press Herald / Getty
The Department of Energy, or DOE, announced Friday that it’s strengthening energy efficiency requirements for light bulbs in U.S. markets, in a move anticipated to save Americans $27 billion on their utility bills over 30 years. The DOE estimates that the new standards will prevent 70 million metric tons of carbon from being emitted over 30 years — equivalent to the annual emissions of 9 million homes.
According to the new rule, light bulbs sold or imported after 2028 must have an efficiency level of at least 120 lumens per watt, almost triple the current minimum standard. Under the new standard, a light bulb as bright as an old-school 60-watt incandescent bulb would require no more than 6.5 watts of electricity.
The federal government has already once strengthened its efficiency standards under the Biden administration. Last year, the classic Edison-style incandescent bulb was almost entirely phased out. (That rule, which set the current efficiency […]
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 […]
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 scale, […]
