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.
Allan Smith, Melanie Zanona and Laura Strickler, Reporters - NBC News
Stephan:
If you read me regularly you will remember the story I ran the other day describing how “king” Trump and his prime minister Musk and his lackeys accidentally fired the men and women with the expertise to keep everything nuclear safe, then realized the stupidity of their actions but couldn’t find all the people to rehire them. Well, it is happening again. All of this sabotage of American democracy and the structure of our federal government is like something out of a satire novel. Do you remember Ray Bradbury’s dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451? That’s what I was thinking about today as I searched for some good news trends in the U.S. and couldn’t find any.
Avian flu warning Credit: YouTube
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Tuesday that, over the weekend, it accidentally fired “several” agency employees who are working on the federal government’s response to the H5N1 avian flu outbreak.
The agency said it is now trying to quickly reverse the firings.
“Although several positions supporting [bird flu efforts] were notified of their terminations over the weekend, we are working to swiftly rectify the situation and rescind those letters,” a USDA spokesperson said in a statement. “USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service frontline positions are considered public safety positions, and we are continuing to hire the workforce necessary to ensure the safety and adequate supply of food to fulfill our statutory mission.”
We’re looking to hear from federal government workers who have been laid off. If you’re willing to talk with us, please email us at tips@nbcuni.com or contact us through one of these methods.
The spokesperson noted that several agency positions were already exempted from the sweeping cuts President Donald Trump’s administration is making across the federal government, adding that the Agriculture […]
The Hanford Nuclear Reservation is the most dangerous and radioactive site in the Western hemisphere. It is where two-thirds of the plutonium that was used to make the U.S. nuclear weapons was created. “King” Trump and his co-president Musk have now fired a large portion of the staff that keeps Hanford from becoming a nuclear disaster like Chernobyl or Fukoshima. To keep hundreds of thousands of Americans safe from nuclear exposure they have left a “skeleton crew.”
Buildings on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation along the Columbia River viewed from the Hanford Reach National Monument near Richland. Credit: Elaine Thompson / The Associated Press
More than a dozen Department of Energy workers were fired this month at a Central Washington nuclear cleanup site, with at least 30 more federal workers taking buyouts, the latest in President Donald Trump and “special government employee” Elon Musk’s quest to slash the federal workforce.
Layoffs at the Hanford site near Richland included safety engineers, environmental scientists and employees who protect workers’ rights, said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., in a news release Friday.
“These reckless firings will slow down critical cleanup work and make workers less safe — trying to run Hanford with a skeleton crew is a recipe for disaster that could have irreversible impacts,” Murray said.
The Hanford site was used from World War II through the Cold War to produce two-thirds of the nation’s plutonium for nuclear weapons, leading to major contamination. Federal employees at the site are responsible for negotiating with regulators to make sure environmental cleanup work is completed […]
Criminal Trump’s coup is breathtaking. Even by the Nazis standards, that seem to be what is guiding him his plan, like everything else in his life, is third-rate. Incompetent. Nasty. Stupid. Nouveau riche flashy. They fired the men and women who keep our nuclear weapons, reactors, and waste storage — remember nuclear waste is lethal for more than a thousand years — and, then, as this article describes realized the mistake they had made and tried to hire them back. But didn’t know how to get in contact with them. The United States is being dismantled by incompetent morons.
The Department of Energy building in Washington, DC. Credit: Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images
More than 300 employees were initially fired at the agency that is tasked with managing America’s nuclear weapons. All but around 25 NNSA staffers have since been reinstated, two current NNSA employees with knowledge of the matter told CNN. It is unclear how many will return to work Tuesday.
The firings created days of chaos inside the agency. Officials backtracked on the terminations Friday after multiple members of Congress petitioned Energy Sec. Chris Wright to reverse course, explaining the dire national security implications.
Some of the initially fired employees included NNSA staff who work at facilities where nuclear weapons are built, oversee contractors who build nuclear weapons and who are responsible for inspecting those weapons.
The Musk gangsters of “king” Trump are looting your personal information and Michelle King, Acting Commissioner of Social Security had the integrity to resign from her post after she could not stop them. And so the Trumpian coup continues. The American people created this monster, the Republicans in Congress are terrified Musk and the other oligarchs will pay for campaigns that will force them from their office and their status, and the Democrats are ineffectual in their opposition. So the only thing that is going to stop the destruction of the American democracy is millions of Americans out on the streets every day protesting against what they created.
Michelle King, the acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration, has quit after a disagreement with Elon Musk over the ‘First Buddy’ and DOGE attempting to access government records Credit: Social Security Administration
The acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration has quit after a disagreement with Elon Musk over the ‘First Buddy’ and DOGE attempting to access government records.
Musk, a ubiquitous presence beside President Trump early in his second term, has used DOGE in his quest to slash unnecessary waste, fraud and abuse from government.
Social security is no different, as Musk today shared staggering data claiming there are millions of dead Americans still eligible for social security payments.
Michelle King – a career bureaucrat who has worked for the SSA since 1994 until being named to the top post this year – apparently clashed with Musk over his attempts to access sensitive government records.
‘What I know is that DOGE wanted access to SSA’s sensitive files — the same way they’re trying to do at Labor and Treasury — and the acting commissioner wouldn’t give it, and she was replaced,’ Nancy Altman, president of […]
As the MAGAt coup continues, as Thom Hartmann describes in this article, I think we are going to see an increasing trend to repress the voting capability of women and people of color. “king” Trump and the oligarchs who bought him his throne and control the government are largely genderists and White supremacy racists. They would prefer to have only ignorant White males voting because they are easily manipulated by their fears, resentments, and racism. All those women who voted for Trump are in for a big and very nasty surprise.
Credit: Becca Taperi / Unsplash
The Republican Taliban doesn’t want my wife, Louise Hartmann, to vote. And they may well put that desire into law this year.
Republicans have always been wary of women voting or even engaging in politics, while Democrats are welcoming of women.
About two-thirds of all female state legislators serve in Blue states; for example, Nevada (61.9%), New Mexico (53.6%), and Colorado (51%) — all Democratic-leaning states — rank as the top three for women’s representation in 2025.
By contrast, Republican-dominated states are consistently at the bottom of the rankings for women’s representation. For instance, West Virginia (11.2%), South Carolina (12.9%), and Mississippi (14.9%) — all Republican-controlled — have the lowest percentages of women in their legislatures.
And Republican activists and candidates are often surprisingly open about their craving to strip women of their voting rights. JD Vance’s billionaire patron Peter Theil, for example, wrote in his 2009 essay for CATO Unbound:
“The 1920s were the last decade in American history during which one could be genuinely optimistic about politics. Since […]
“King” Trump and his vassals do not seem to understand the geopolitical relationships that for 80 years have kept us from world war. Sadly, I think we are going to see this structure wrecked by these morons. If the Ukrainian war ends in the Putin-Trump conclusion as it seems to be headed, I think we are going to see much more violence in the world. The devastation being wrought on the world by this ignorant man and his coven is going to impact the lives of everyone on the planet.
Pete Hegseth’s visit to Poland was his first bilateral meeting since he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Credit: Wojtek Radwanski / AFP / Getty
Europeans cannot assume that America’s military presence on the continent will last forever, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday during bombshell remarks in Warsaw.
“The American troop levels on the continent are important,” he said, alongside his Polish counterpart, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz. “What happens five, 10, 15 years from now is part of a larger discussion that reflects the threat level, America’s posture, our needs around the globe, but most importantly the capability of European countries to step up.”
“That’s why our message is so stark to our European allies — now is the time to invest because you can’t make an assumption that America’s presence will last forever,” he added.
Hegseth’s comments come on the heels of a two-day meeting at NATO’s Brussels headquarters that marked his debut on the European stage. He had already hinted then that Europeans would eventually have to provide most of the conventional deterrence against Russia.
Amy Maxmen, Public Health Local Editor and Correspondent - Kaiser Family Foundation Heatth News
Stephan:
“King” Trump handled the Covid-19 so badly hundreds of thousands of Americans died. Maybe you knew one of the dead. It looks like he is doing it again. Our already bad illness profit system is being torn apart by Trump and his co-president Musk. Your healthcare is very probably going to be affected by this. And the data the physicians and nurses depend on has been taken down. None of this makes any sense if fostering its citizen’s wellbeing is a nation’s goal.
Chicks free of bird flu await purchase in a Houston feed and farm supply store February 24, 2004 Credit: Richard Carson / RJC / Reuters
Sonya Stokes, an emergency room physician in the San Francisco Bay Area, braces herself for a daily deluge of patients sick with coughs, soreness, fevers, vomiting, and other flu-like symptoms.
She’s desperate for information, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a critical source of urgent analyses of the flu and other public health threats, has gone quiet in the weeks since President Donald Trump took office.
“Without more information, we are blind,” she said.
Flu has been brutal this season. The CDC estimates at least 24 million illnesses, 310,000 hospitalizations, and 13,000 deaths from the flu since the start of October. At the same time, the bird flu outbreak continues to infect cattle and farmworkers. But CDC analyses that would inform people about these situations are delayed, and the CDC has cut off communication with doctors, researchers, and the World Health Organization, say doctors and public health experts.
Prices are going up and, as this assessment from Bloomberg makes clear, America’s economy is looking increasingly iffy. Given the trade war “king” Trump has created I don’t see how it could be otherwise. But let us hope.
Credit: Bloomberg
Beneath a solid fourth-quarter earnings season, there’s a worrisome development that may put a dent in the bull case for US stocks: Corporate America’s profit outlook is souring.
Among companies that have issued guidance for next quarter and beyond, more have provided estimates that trail analysts’ expectations. A gauge of forward earnings that compares companies’ forecasts with analysts’ projections is the lowest in a year after plunging to a level last seen in 2016 earlier this month, data compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence show.
There’s plenty of reasons for doubt. A full-fledged trade war will likely weigh on export demand and overseas profits of multinational firms. At home, inflation remains sticky and the Federal Reserve appears in no rush to cut interest rates.
“The uncertainty entering this year is as great as it has been in years and executives are trying to navigate through that with more modest guidance,” said Jim Tierney, chief investment officer of concentrated US growth at AllianceBernstein. “Fourth-quarter earnings results are strong, but it didn’t fully follow through to 2025 guidance.”
