IF YOU ENJOY SR AND FIND IT USEFUL WOULD YOU PLEASE DONATE

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

SCHWARTZ REPORT PODCAST

Schwartz Report Episode 52: Secrets of Happiness

Here Are All The Major Lawsuits Against Trump And Musk: Judge Shoots Down Trump’s Latest Attempt To Freeze Funding

Stephan: 

In a sad way, this article is good news. It shows us there is still some integrity in the judicial system of the United States. It also tells us that Trump is attempting to orchestrate a coup, although almost no one in the media, even as they cover these events, will use that word.

Credit: Redbubble

An appeals court judge denied the Trump administration’s request for an administrative stay to block a court order that required federal agencies to lift their spending freezes—the latest blow to the Trump administration amid a slew of legal actions as Democrats and others fight President Donald Trump and cost-cutting czar Elon Musk in court.

Feb. 11The 1st Circuit Court of Appeals denied the Trump administration’s request to block a court order that required agencies to stop any spending freezes they enacted in compliance with Trump’s directive, Politico and the Associated Press reported Tuesday afternoon, delivering a legal blow to Trump’s team.

Feb. 11District Judge John D. Bates ordered HHS, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration to restore their websites and datasets to what they were on Jan. 30—prior to data being removed—before the end of the day in response to a lawsuit from Doctors for America that alleged the Trump administration removed “a broad range of health-related data and other information used by health professionals and researchers from publicly accessible government websites.”

Feb. 11Another lawsuit was filed […]

Read the Full Article

1 Comment

Trump loosens enforcement of US law banning bribery of foreign officials

Stephan: 

“Emperor” Trump, a multi-convicted felon, and multiple bankrupt, convicted sex offender has been a criminal all his life and is now trying to reshape your country and mine into a reflection of himself; to legalize the United States as a criminal nation. What are you doing to speak out against this evil transformation?

Credit: GZERO Media

WASHINGTON, D.C.– U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order directing the Justice Department to pause prosecutions of Americans accused of bribing foreign government officials while trying to win or retain business in their countries.

Trump’s order pauses enforcement of the nearly half-century-old Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to review current and past actions related to the law and prepare new guidelines for enforcement.

The law, enacted in 1977, prohibits companies that operate in the United States from bribing foreign officials. Over time, it has become a guiding force for how American businesses operate overseas.

“It’s going to mean a lot more business for America,” Trump told reporters while signing the order in the Oval Office on Monday.

Trump wanted to strike down FCPA during his first term in office. He has called it a “horrible law” and said “the world is laughing at us” for enforcing it.

Trump’s executive order “diminishes – and could pave the way for completely eliminating – the […]

Read the Full Article

No Comments

22 Republican AGs Sue to Stop New York’s Attempt to Make Fossil Fuel Polluters Pay for Climate Damages

Stephan: 

I hope you understand that the coup that is occurring is not happening just because of the actions of “emperor” Trump, his co-“emperor” Elon Musk, and their lackeys in Congress. The “Republicans” who run the Red States are equally complicit. As this article describes 22 Red state Attorney Generals have joined forces to attempt to protect the profits of the petroleum oligarchs, further damaging the quality of your personal life and promoting the disaster of climate change.

Climate activists held a rally outside Governor Kathy Hochul’s office in Manhattan to deliver thousands of petitions asking her to sign the Climate Change Superfund Act, on Sept. 24, 2024. Credit: Erik McGregor / LightRocket / Getty 

A group of Republican attorneys general have brought a lawsuit against New York state over its 2024 Climate Change Superfund Act, claiming it is unconstitutional.

Under the law, signed by New York Governor Kathy Hochul in December, the biggest greenhouse gas emitters in the United States from 2000 to 2024 are required to pay the state a total of $3 billion per year for 25 years, reported The New York Times. New York lawmakers say the law’s reach extends to companies all over the world.

The 22 red states suing New York, led by West Virginia, say the law exceeds the state’s constitutional authority.

“This law is unconstitutional, and I am proud to lead this coalition of attorneys general and brave private energy companies and industry groups in our fight to protect against this overreach. If we allow New York to get away with this, it will only be a matter […]

Read the Full Article

1 Comment

2025 Budget Stakes: Many Households Could Lose Needed Rental Assistance

Stephan: 

I know that a number of my readers rent their homes; they do not own them, and many depend on rental assistance. I am publishing this report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities because I want to warn you that ’emperor” Trump and his “co-emperor” Elon Musk don’t give a damn about your wellbeing, and are doing what they can to end rental assistance. Notice in the chart that heads this report, what a difference rental assistance has made to the wellbeing of hundreds of thousands of Americans.

Affordable housing is a basic human need, but many families’ incomes aren’t high enough to afford market-rate rents in their neighborhoods. Republican budget proposals could make this worse. Many households already struggling to afford rent could have their housing assistance taken away under Republican proposals that Congress could consider this year, putting them at risk of eviction and homelessness. Past Republican proposals would cut trillions of dollars over the next decade from the part of the federal budget that funds rental assistance. This year’s funding proposals from House Republicans are insufficient to protect rental assistance for hundreds of thousands of people. Other Republican proposals would impose harmful changes such as rent hikes and inflexible work requirements and undercut community efforts to reduce homelessness and housing discrimination.

Republican Proposals Would Worsen Shortage of Rental Assistance

Federal rental assistance makes housing affordable for more than 10 million people, including nearly 3.3 million children, 2.6 million people with disabilities, and 2.1 million older adults. Rental assistance sharply reduces homelessness and other hardships and lifts close to 3 million people above the poverty […]

Read the Full Article

No Comments

Trump administration orders consumer protection agency to stop work, closes building

Stephan: 

Did you vote for Trump? Is you did you are reasonable and complicit in the end of all consumer protection against scams. Your bank has implemented new fees, your credit card corporations have done the same? You were deceived into paying money for some benefit you didn’t get? Trump is a scammer with a long history of deceit, and he has not removed any protection you have so his fellow scammers can deceive and cheat you. Aren’t you glad you voted for a convicted criminal for President?

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau headquarters which has now been closed. Credit: Britannica

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Trump administration has ordered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to stop nearly all its work, effectively shutting down an agency that was created to protect consumers after the 2008 financial crisis and subprime mortgage-lending scandal.

Russell Vought, the newly installed director of the Office of Management and Budget, directed the CFPB, in a Saturday night email confirmed by The Associated Press, to stop work on proposed rules, to suspend the effective dates on any rules that were finalized but not yet effective, and to stop investigative work and not begin any new investigations. The agency has been a target of conservatives since President Barack Obama pushed to include it in the 2010 financial reform legislation that followed the 2007-2008 financial crisis.

The email also ordered the bureau to “cease all supervision and examination activity.”

On Sunday, administration officials also said that the CFPB’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. would […]

Read the Full Article

No Comments

‘Sabotaging the American empire’: Paul Krugman explains how MAGA ‘destroyed’ US moral authority

Stephan: 

“Emperor” Trump and his coup vassals are destroying America’s stature in the world. Nobel Laureate Economist Paul Krugman spells it out.  The United States will neither be respected or trusted, and it will change the whole structure of geopolitics. The effects of this I believe will last for at least a generation, and if you travel outside of America you will experience this loss of status personally..

Economist and Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman

In an October 16, 2023 column for the New York Times, liberal economist Paul Krugman lamented the decline the “Pax Americana” and argued that MAGA Republicans were to blame. The term “Pax Americana” refers to a period of relative stability in the West following World War 2, and that stability, according to the concept, was encouraged by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

A lot has happened politically since Krugman wrote that column. Donald Trump won the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign following a widely criticized debate with Trump, Republicans flipped the U.S. Senate, and Trump narrowly defeated then-Vice President Kamala Harris in the general election before returning to White House on January 20, 2025.

Krugman revisits the “Pax Americana” subject in an article posted on his Substack page on February 10, warning the stability of the West is in serious danger during Trump’s second presidency. And Krugman is highly critical of the “destruction of” the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), […]

Read the Full Article

2 Comments

States With More Maternal-Fetal Specialists Had Lower Rates of Maternal Death

Stephan: 

The Dobbs decision has had an impact on the wellbeing of women that is not getting anywhere near the media or political attention it should. If you are a fertile woman living in a Red State and planning to have a child your life and the life of your fetus are at much higher risk than if you live in a Blue State. Why? Because maternal-fetal medicine physicians are leaving those MAGAt-controlled states. It has gotten so bad in some MAGAt areas that they have become what are called “medical deserts.” The difference is so notable that if you are a woman seeking to get pregnant I would recommend that you stay with friends or family in a Blue state for the term of your pregnancy and delivery.

Baptist Health Center OB/GYN unit Credit: Baptist Health

AURORA, COLORADO — States with more maternal-fetal medicine physicians had lower rates of maternal mortality, according to a cross-sectional analysis of nearly 15 million births.

States with a low density of these specialists had an adjusted maternal mortality rate of 24.25 per 100,000 live births compared with 16.96 per 100,000 live births for states with a high density (incidence rate ratio 0.70, 95% CI 0.58-0.85), reported Tetsuya Kawakita, MD, MS, of Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, during a presentation at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicineopens in a new tab or window annual meeting.

In addition, stillbirth rates were also numerically lower in states with a high density of maternal-fetal medicine physicians: 5.85 per 100,000 births versus 6.17 and 6.19 per 100,000 for states with low and moderate density, respectively.

New York and Massachusetts had the highest maternal-fetal medicine physician density, followed by other Northeast states as well as Hawaii and Alaska. Conversely, the Southeast had the lowest density, with Tennessee having the highest rate of […]

Read the Full Article

1 Comment

Trump removes top government ethics czar

Stephan: 

“Emperor” Trump is committed to the destruction of American democracy, and he does not want to be bothered by anyone reporting his, and his vassals, lack of ethics and ongoing criminality. So what to do? The answer is simple: eliminate any ethical oversight of their ongoing coup. And that is exactly what criminal Trump has done. This article describes it. Meanwhile, the majority of the American people placidly look on approvingly as the CBS poll I published yesterday made clear.

David Huitema, Director of the Office of Government Ethics, at his office in Washington, January 2, 2025. 
Credit: Evelyn Hockstein / Reuters

President Donald Trump removed the head of the Office of Government Ethics from his post, the agency said Monday – the latest example of Trump acting against a government watchdog.

The agency’s director, David Huitema, was confirmed to the post by the Senate in November and officially began the job in December. He had been nominated by President Joe Biden but had languished for more than a year in the Senate before lawmakers confirmed him by a 50-46 vote during a post-election lame-duck session.

OGE directors typically serve five-year terms – allowing them to overlap administrations as part of an attempt to reduce partisanship. On Monday, a statement on the agency website read: “OGE has been notified that the President is removing David Huitema as the Director of OGE. OGE is reverting to an Acting Director.”

In an interview with CNN, Huitema said he was notified of his removal by the Presidential Personnel Office through an email […]

Read the Full Article

No Comments