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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.
Welcome to the christofascist authoritarian oligarchy the United States is about to become.
The Pentagon Credit: Shutterstock
President-elect Donald Trump has announced that he intends to nominate billionaire investor Steve Feinberg to be the second in command at the Defense Department.
The Washington Post’s John Hudson wrote that Feinberg has “investments in companies that maintain Pentagon contracts.”
Trump tasked Feinberg to clean out the national intelligence agencies in his first term, which began in 2017. An NBC News report at the time noted that he is the CEO at Cerberus Capital Management, overseeing DynCorp’s ownership. The company is a “major national security contractor” that charges “billions for overseas military and police training, among other things.”
James Rodriguez, Senior Reporter - msn | Business Insider
Stephan:
Something very strange is happening to the housing market, as this article describes. It is getting very hard for younger first-time buyers to own a property because interest rates are close to 7% if they can find a house and afford the down payment and monthly costs. But even if they can do that finding a home, as described, is getting tough because many builders, and financial groups, have gotten into the rental business and have taken houses they own off the market. It is changing our society and neighborhoods, and I do not think it is in a good way.
Credit: Adobe Firefly / pixhook / Getty
Builders have too many new homes on their hands.
Thanks to a construction boom years in the making, homebuilders are sitting on more newly completed homes than at any point since 2009, when the market was reeling from the global financial crisis. Despite the hefty ready-to-sell supply, a sizable chunk of those homes may never be sold to regular buyers. That strange reality says a lot about the hurdles for would-be homeowners right now.
Both builders and buyers find themselves in a tricky position. Prices have continued their climb in most of the country. Mortgage rates dropped steadily over the summer, but that turned out to be a head fake — in the span of a month, the typical rate for a 30-year loan increased by almost a full percentage point, and could rise further. Throwing down for a starter home is about 45% more expensive than renting, a far wider gap than the historical average of about 15%, according to monthly expense data tracked by John Burns Research and […]
The MAGAt-controlled Supreme Court, like Republicans in general, don’t seem to understand or even care about the wellbeing and medical reality of children as well as the LGBTQ subpopulation. With Trump in the Presidency, Congress dysfunctional, and the corrupt MAGAt majority dominating the Supreme Court, I think we are going to see politicians have much greater control over American bodies, which means our already poor healthcare system is going to get even worse, and we are going to see many more youth suicides.
The US supreme court heard one of the most consequential LGBTQ+ rights cases in its history on Wednesday, with arguments that laid bare the conservative supermajority’s broad threats to civil rights, bodily autonomy and decades of legal precedent.
In US v Skrmetti, the court is weighing Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming healthcare for transgender youth, one of 24 state laws across the US prohibiting treatments that are part of the standards of care endorsed by every major medical association in the country.
The case originated with three trans youth and their parents who sued Tennessee, arguing the care – puberty blockers and hormone therapy – was medically necessary and “life-saving”. The Biden administration joined the case, asserting Tennessee’s law was unconstitutional.
The case hinges on the legal question of whether Tennessee’s healthcare ban constitutes a form of sex discrimination that merits “heightened scrutiny”, which would mean the case be returned to lower courts for a more rigorous review. But the oral arguments made clear that a ruling against the trans plaintiffs could have far-reaching implications for trans rights and anti-discrimination protections more broadly.’
As MAGAt world becomes increasingly dominant in the United States the emerging trend is we are becoming an increasingly nasty country, and I predict it is going to get much worse, particularly in states controlled by the Republican MAGAt Party.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK — Walmart, the largest private employer in the United States, will curb some diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts. It’s the latest company to backtrack on diversity initiatives in the face of right-wing pressure, and its decisions will reverberate across corporate America.
The company said Monday it is ending racial equity training programs for staff and evaluating programs designed to increase supplier diversity. Walmart has worked to increase the number of suppliers that are at least 51% owned or managed by a woman, minority, veteran or someone who is LGBTQ in recent years.
The company is also reviewing all funding of Pride and other events and monitoring its online marketplace to remove sexual or transgender products marketed to children. Walmart also said it will not extend its Center for Racial Equity, a five-year, $100 million philanthropic commitment the company made in 2020 to address the root causes of gaps in outcomes of African Americans in education, health, criminal justice and other areas.
DEI is typically a mix of employee training, resource networks and recruiting practices to encourage representation of people of different races, genders, classes and other backgrounds.
It’s not clear what impact Walmart’s moves will have on its workforce of 1.6 million […]
First of all, I want to thank all who have been sending in monthly contributions or have sent in support over the past two days. This makes a great deal of difference to me. I am going to run this one more day.
I have been doing SR now for 33 years; I give it away freely and don’t permit advertising because I don’t have time to dig out whether a potential advertiser fosters wellbeing. Over the years it has taken longer and longer each day to research fact-based articles and reports, and it has become ever more expensive. My out-of-pocket costs last year were $22,000, and this year it will be more. So if you read SR regularly, and are able to, I would certainly appreciate a contribution to help cover those costs.
Julia Conley , Staff Writer - truthout | Common Dreams
Stephan:
As we enter Trump’s christofascist mafiosa regime Republicans at the state level feel evermore empowered to control women. This court ruling in Idaho by the Federal Ninth Circuit Court will be used in other Republican-controlled states to limit their women from traveling to another state to get healthcare. We are entering into the age of the Hand Maid’s tale. I wonder what comes next? Burqas.
Credit: gguy44 / iStock / Getty
Nearly two years after it was first proposed by Republican lawmakers, an Idaho law that, as one rights advocate said, essentially “traps” people in the state to stop them from getting abortion care, was permitted to go into effect on Monday after a federal appeals court ruling.
The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Idaho can prohibit people from “harboring or transporting” a minor who needs to leave the state to obtain an abortion, which is still legal in the surrounding states of Oregon, Washington, and Montana.
The law, originally proposed as House Bill 242, makes the so-called crime of “abortion trafficking” punishable by two to five years in prison, even if the pregnant person obtains an abortion in a state where the procedure is legal.
The law was blocked in its entirety in late 2023 by a judge who found it violated First Amendment rights, because it also included a ban on “recruiting” teenagers to obtain abortion care across state lines.
The appeals court on Monday found that the “recruitment” portion of the law did […]
In the Republican-controlled states the people of America seem to be devolving back into the 19th century, both as how they wish women to be treated, but also, how they treat animals and birds. Cockfighting is a booming trend throughout rural America, particularly in states like Oklahoma, Texas, and Arkansas. Magazines are published about it, and you can Google sites that sell the equipment. My family on my mother’s side has been here since the 1600s when Queen Elizabeth gave a forebearer a land grant in Gloucester County, Virginia, where I grew up. But today, I feel like I live in a foreign country.
Credit: AliExpress
A rooster stands near its teepee shelter in Wilson, Okla., in this Jan. 23, 2024, file photo. In 2002, Oklahoma became one of the last places in the United States to outlaw cockfighting between roosters, often outfitted with razor-sharp steel blades. (AP/Julio Cortez)
A rooster stands near its teepee shelter in Wilson, Okla., in this Jan. 23, 2024, file photo. In 2002, Oklahoma became one of the last places in the United States to outlaw cockfighting between roosters, often outfitted with razor-sharp steel blades. (AP/Julio Cortez)
Amid concerns that state legislators may roll back rules regarding the business of breeding and trading game fowl, animal-welfare activists with two partner organizations — Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy — released a report on cockfighting in Arkansas.
This comes after the groups obtained what they said was a recording showing a lobbying effort by Arkansas Gamefowl Commission to weaken the state’s current animal cruelty law that regulates the game fowl business. Arkansas Gamefowl Commission is a registered client of lobbyist Anchor Strategies.
The report, released on Wednesday, described the current state of cockfighting and game fowl breeding in […]
While a growing number of Americans are leaving any affiliation with a religion, for a growing group of young White men they are leaving their evangelical churches because they feel they have become too “feminized” and joining the most orthodox churches they can find. This article describes what is happening, and it is another example of how a percentage of the white male population seeks authoritarian orthodoxy. For them, they seek some version of a fantasized version of our history.
Some traditions in Orthodox churches stretch back 2,000 years. Credit: AFP / Getty
Ben Christenson was raised Anglican — church every Sunday, a religious school, and Christian camp every summer. But Christenson, 27 of Fairfax, Virginia, always found himself longing for a more traditional faith.
“The hard thing about growing up in my church is that there was a lot of change even in my lifetime,” he told The Post. “I realized that there really was no way to stop the change.”
He watched as traditions went by the wayside: The robed choir was swapped out for a worship band, lines were blurred on female ordination, and long-held stances on LGBT issues shifted.
“All of that stuff was basically fungible, which gave me a sense that the theological commitments are kind of fungible, too,” he said.
So Christenson began exploring other denominations in college and landed on perhaps the most traditional of all: Orthodox Christianity. In 2022, at the age of 25, he converted.
“It seems to me like the mainline denominations are hemorrhaging people,” he said. “If you still are serious about being a Christian […]
