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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.
Kevin Liptak and Veronica Stracqualursi, Staff Writers - CNN
Stephan:
Get ready for it. “emperor” Trump has just warned the Commons that as a result of the trade war he has initiated, we will all be experiencing “some pain.” This pain is going to come in all kinds of ways, not just the increase in grocery prices. There will be major loss of jobs in some states. For example as cited in this report, “Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky, which Trump won by more than 30 percentage points in the 2024 election, warned of the potential impacts on the state’s bourbon industry after the provinces of British Columbia and Ontario directed their liquor boards to remove American alcohol from shelves.
“emperor” Trump warns the Commons they will be experiencing “some pain” because of the trade war he has initiated. Credit: CNN
A day after signing steep new tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China, President Donald Trump acknowledged what economists, members of Congress and even some of his own aides — in their previous lives — have been saying all along: Americans may find themselves paying the costs.
“THIS WILL BE THE GOLDEN AGE OF AMERICA! WILL THERE BE SOME PAIN? YES, MAYBE (AND MAYBE NOT!),” Trump posted, in all capital letters, on his Truth Social platform.
The message, which appeared in the hour before Trump arrived to his West Palm Beach, Florida, golf club for the second day in a row, amounted to an advance warning. Trump is serious about fulfilling his campaign promises to end illegal immigration, curb the flow of deadly drugs and rebalance continental trade.
But doing so will be uncomfortable, Trump is suggesting, and could serve to undermine another of his top campaign vows: lowering costs for Americans.
“WE WILL MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, AND IT WILL ALL […]
Fascism like a lethal cancer is growing in the United States. Government agents are roaming the streets grabbing immigrants, families are being separated. concentration camps are being set up, federal agencies are being dismantled, the economy is about to go in to recession with tariffs, and allies are breaking away. Say goodbye to American democracy readers. It is disappearing before your eyes while a large minority of Americans don’t seem to comprehend what is happening in their lives.
Trump signs tariffs
PALM BEACH, FLORIDA — President Trump on Saturday imposed significant tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China, a White House spokesperson said, following through on a long-standing pledge and potentially setting off a trade war with the United States’ top trading partners.
“Tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico, and China are SIGNED!” White House spokesperson Harrison Fields posted on X. “This bold move holds these countries accountable for stopping illegal immigration and the flow of dangerous drugs like fentanyl.”
Trump is imposing a 25 percent tariff on imports from Mexico and Canada, as well as a 10 percent tariff on Chinese goods. Canadian energy imports will only be tariffed at 10 percent. The tariffs are set to take effect on Tuesday.
The tariffs signed Saturday include a clause that stipulates the U.S. could increase the tariffs if any of the countries retaliate, which they are expected to do.
For months, the president has vowed to impose tariffs on the three countries as he called on them to do more to crack down on the flow of migrants and fentanyl into the United States.
Trump has signaled Saturday’s announcement may just be the first step […]
Zack Colman and Marcia Brown, Staff Writers - Politico
Stephan:
There is a christofascist playbook, Hitler followed it, Mussolini followed it, and Stalin followed it. The latest version in Project 2025. And one of the constants of the christofascist playbook is that the government must be censured to ensure that information the fascists don’t like is not made available to citizens. “king” Trump and his MAGAt vassals don’t believe in or want any government agency to talk about climate change. So all the federal agencies have been told to strip any reference to climate change off of their websites.
Climate change references are under fire at the Agriculture Department under President Donald Trump and Agriculture Secretary nominee Brooke Rollins. Credit: Carolyn Kaster / AP
Agriculture Department employees have been ordered to delete landing pages discussing climate change across agency websites and document climate change references for further review, according to an internal email obtained by POLITICO.
The directive from USDA’s office of communications, whose authenticity was validated by three people, could affect information across dozens of programs including climate-smart agriculture initiatives, USDA climate hubs and Forest Service information regarding wildfires, the frequency and severity of which scientists have linked to hotter, drier conditions fueled by climate change. And it is reminiscent of moves made during the first Trump administration to remove references to climate change from federal government websites.
The email sent Thursday afternoon calls on website managers to “Identify and archive or unpublish any landing pages focused on climate change” and “Identify all web content related to climate change and document it in a spreadsheet” for the office to review. It set a Friday deadline for handing over […]
Christofascists don’t care about the wellbeing of the country, good healthcare is not part of their agenda. That’s why the CDC websites have now been heavily censured. It is no longer going to be possible for Americans to look to the scientific agendas of the government for fact-based information on issues that are critically important to them. Nor can they rely on their government to tell them the truth about what it is doing. You may have heard Trump talk about sending $50 million dollars to Gaza for condoms, which they made into bombs. Putting aside how one would turn a condom into a bomb, the money, $83 million, was actually sent not to Gaza next to Israel but to the large Gaza province of Mozambique a country in Africa north of South Africa to help them deal with an outbreak of AIDS. Like all fascists “king” Trump it is not interested in facts . What he cares about are dramatic lies that stir the emotions of ignorant Americans. It is exactly the same ploy as the lies Hitler told about the Jews.
The CDC has begun removing from its website words and pages relating to diversity, gender identity, or LGBTQ issues, according to several sources.
“From a journalist friend: Just spreading the word,” wrote Deborah Blum, director of MIT’s Knight Science Journalism program, on Blueskyopens in a new tab or window. “The CDC is purging data, so people should archive their favorite CDC datasets today, namely ones around race/ethnic diversity, LGBTQ, and reproductive health. Also, health data involving climate. The youth risk behavior surveyopens in a new tab or window has already gone down.”
It was unclear whether the pages were being permanently deleted or just removed from public view, but a quick search showed the following pages have all gone missing and return a note indicating the “page you’re looking for was not found”:
“king” Trump has just gutted public education in the United States. American public schools were once the envy of the world, and families came to the United States because they could get the best education possible for their children. That is no longer true, and exactly what is going to happen to public schools in the U.S. is very unclear. My assessment is that Blue states will try to maintain public education, and Red MAGAt states will go along with “king” Trump and move young people in their states into religious and other kinds of profitable private schools. It will become part of the Great Schism Trend as the children in the Red MAGAt states get an indoctrination curriculum, while the children in Blue States get an education.
President Donald Trump at the White House on Jan. 29, 2025. Credit” Alex Brandon / AP
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday that aims to steer large amounts of federal money away from public schools and toward private-school vouchers and other “educational alternatives.”
The executive order cites disheartening national test scores released Wednesday as one justification, saying families need options outside the public system. Securing federal funding has been a longtime goal of supporters of vouchers and educational savings accounts, which families can tap to pay for private education.
Until now, with the exception of a voucher program in Washington, D.C., the use of taxpayer dollars for private education has expanded mostly through state policy. A proposal to use federal tax credits to fund private school scholarships has not advanced in Congress — though new versions were recently introduced.
The executive order sidesteps Congress and directs the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to find ways to take existing […]
Elizabeth Weise Josh Peter, Staff Writers - USA Today
Stephan:
Texas has a growing secession movement as I have previously reported in SR (see archives) and other MAGAt states do as well. But it isn’t just MAGAt states that are thinking like this. California, a Democrat-controlled state, and the fifth largest economy in the world is thinking about secession as well, as this article describes. I don’t see this happening but what I do see is that the Great Schism Trend is becoming more pronounced as “king” Trump tries to take the American government apart and turn the country into a christofascist White supremacy, female-subordinate oligarchy nation. If Trump is not impeached and stays alive and in power for four years, I think the real power structure is likely to shift to individual states and groups of states, even as the country remains ostensibly a single nation.
To read the actual California secession ballot initiative see: https://www.sos.ca.gov/administration/news-releases-and-advisories/2025-news-releases-and-advisories/Proposed-Initiative-Enters-Circulation-Requires-Future-Vote-on-Whether-California-Should-Become-Independent-Country
The California state flag, note “Republic”. Californians watching what Trump is doing to the United States have created a growing movement to secede. Credit: Mark Ralston / AFP / Getty
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – President Donald Trump, long a vocal detractor of California, touched down in Los Angeles on Friday to tour fire ravaged areas, pledging federal support after days of criticizing Democrats over the fires.
The visit came the day after a new ballot initiative asking voters whether the state should become an independent country was cleared by the California Secretary of State’s office to begin gathering signatures.
Could the Golden State just fly the coop, become its own nation and walk away from 175 years of union with the United States?
After all, the idea of California becoming its own country has been around for decades. The state flag still commemorates the 25 days it was once its own republic. Even Gov. Gavin Newsom has slipped and called it a “nation state” more than a few times.
The fires have brought Californians together, said Michael Bryant, 56, whose girlfriend’s Malibu home […]
The United States is increasingly becoming a nation where science is considered to be not fact-based, but just a political position. Nowhere has this been made clearer than in the anti-vaxxer movement. Americans are so illiterate and ill-informed that that large numbers of them are actually willing to die for their stupidity. And now in 15 states, as this article describes, politicians who increasingly control healthcare in the United States are trying to discourage vaccinations. And what is happening? As this report describes, “In 2024, whooping cough cases reached a decade-highopens in a new tab or window and 16 measles outbreaks, the largest among them in Chicagoopens in a new tab or window and Minnesotaopens in a new tab or window, put health officials on edgeopens in a new tab or window. Most states are below the 95% vaccination threshold for kindergartners — the level needed to protect communities against measles outbreaks.”
Many see a political opportunity to rewrite policies in their states after President Donald Trump’s return to the White House and anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’sopens in a new tab or window nomination as the next secretaryopens in a new tab or window of HHS. The agency oversees virtually every aspect of vaccination efforts in the U.S., from funding their development to establishing recommendations for medical providers to distributing vaccines and covering them through federal programs.
Sarah Dolgin, Political Reporter - Chattanooga Times Free Press
Stephan:
Tennesse Republican MAGAt women apparently see Hitler as a hero and a model of leadership. As the link at the head of this report shows, it appears that after posting this laudatory reference they were sufficiently embarrassed publicly that they have subsequently taken their Hitler reference off their website. But I don’t think that is the point. What matters is that they put this reference up in the first place with the specific intent of teaching the young by holding up Hitler as an intelligent successful leader. It is yet another data point demonstrating the Great Schism Trend, and how very strange MAGAt world has become
The Tennessee Federation of Republican Women reading list cites Adolf Hitler in discussing the importance of training the youth. Credit: Ricky Young / Chattanooga Times Free Press
The Tennessee Federation of Republican Women is coming under fire for providing parents a reading list for children that cites Adolf Hitler as an example of leadership.
“Hitler and all intelligent leaders throughout history have understood that the way to change a country was through the training of its youth, to get them while they are young,” the group’s reading list says.
The list, dated March 2024, is titled “Growing American Patriots Through Literacy” and posted on the group’s website.
The reference was called out on a social media site dedicated to the Knoxville community. Dozens of commenters found the citation of Hitler as a source on educating youth to be offensive.
“How do we make the changes necessary?” the reading list says, just before the Hitler quote. “Proverbs 22:6 teaches us that if ‘we train up a child in the way […]