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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.
America’s horrible illness profit system that passes for healthcare in this country is the worst and most expensive in the developed world. And, as this article describes, it has been made even worse in states where Republicans are in control, relegating pregnant women in those states to second-class status. Now the matter has gone to the Supreme Court. What do you think the Republican christofascist majority will decide? I don’t know how a woman likely to get pregnant lives in states like Idaho and Texas. It is potentially very dangerous.
A sign reading “My body, my choice” taped to a streetlight in front of the Idaho Capitol on May 3, 2022. Credit: Sarah A. Miller / Idaho Statesman / AP
In the early 1980s, doctors at Chicago’s Cook County Hospital faced an alarming trend: Thousands of patients from across the city were being transferred to the county facility, including patients whose conditions were unstable, making the transfers medically risky. Many patients ended up in the intensive care unit; others died.
Several years later, the New England Journal of Medicine published a study confirming that transfers had skyrocketed from roughly 1,300 in 1980 to nearly 7,000 in 1983. The study supported what doctors had observed, according to the Chicago Tribune: “that private hospitals in the area are shirking their duty to provide care to the needy.” Reviewing some 500 transfers from private medical facilities to the Cook County hospital over a one-month period, the study found that the vast majority of patients […]
I have been telling my readers for years about the Matrix of Consciousness, and that all living beings have a measure of consciousness (See SR Archive and search on “Science slowly Accepts the Matrix of Consciousness.) I used to have fellow scientists, including parapsychologists tell me I was nuts; I was just anthropomorphizing. Well, times have changed.
A cleaner Wrasse fish. Credit: cdascher / Getty / iStockphoto
All three of these discoveries came in the last five years — indications that the more scientists test animals, the more they find that many species may have inner lives and be sentient. A surprising range of creatures have shown evidence of conscious thought or experience, including insects, fish and some crustaceans.
That has prompted a group of top researchers on animal cognition to publish a new pronouncement that they hope will transform how scientists and society view — and care — for animals.
On my Seaview expedition, at sea diving every day in the Caribbean, I developed a relationship with an octopus, one might even call it a friendship. I have never forgotten our interactions, and it was one of the things that made me recognize the reality of the Matrix of Consciousness. Once humanity accepts the Matrix it is going to require a very profound revision in how we view, and interact, with the other beings in the Matrix. This is why I am so focused and place such emphasis on fostering wellbeing of every part of earth’s ecosystem.
Dr Norman says the sea creature should not be underestimated. Credit: ABC News / RTV
Octopus Paul may very well have psychic powers and an ability to predict the future.
Museum Victoria’s head of science, Dr Mark Norman, has been studying octopuses, squids, cuttlefishes and nautiluses – otherwise known as the cephalopods – for more than two decades.
While Dr Nornam admits to being an Octopus Paul sceptic, he says the sea creature should not be underestimated.
“They’re clever animals with big brains and they do amazing things,” he said.
“It’s very impressive what Paul has done and I don’t know if it’s psychic or not, but they’re animals that are capable of amazing things, so who can tell.
“I’m not going to burst other people’s bubbles because I don’t believe in it personally.”
Octopus Paul has become a World Cup sensation by correctly forecasting the results of Germany’s seven games in South Africa and finishing the tournament in style by predicting a Spanish victory in the final.
The eight-limbed mediterranean octopus would make his prediction by choosing between two containers of […]
Stephen Humphries , Staff Writer - Christian Science Moniitor
Stephan:
The TCP Republicans are so pathetically and nastily stupid about immigration. The facts are that our economy would be in shambles were it not for immigrants. Read some facts. Oh, and do I need to say every human being in the United States without exception is either an immigrant or the descendant of an immigrant?
Are immigrants a boon to the U.S. economy or a drag on it?
For urban centers that have experienced a surge of immigrants, the costs are staggering. For instance, the office of the mayor of New York predicted that the city will spend north of $12 billion through fiscal year 2025 to accommodate more than 100,000 migrants. But that’s a microcosm. The macro picture tells a different story.
The United States is experiencing a labor shortage, according to Dhaval Joshi, chief strategist at BCA Research, an economic analysis firm. Blame the pandemic. It led many older workers to retire early. Plus, an estimated 1.7 million native-born workers ages 25 to 55 have dropped out of the workforce since the pandemic. The surge of people who have immigrated to the U.S. legally or illegally since 2022 has helped fill those job vacancies. That’s helped stave off a recession.
“One important way to reduce inflation is to increase the production of goods and services,” says David Bier, associate director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in […]
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 […]
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 […]
