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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.
Yet another factual proof that the pharmaceutical industry is about profit not fostering wellbeing. I think this story is disgusting, and you will notice that even though your tax dollars are used to develop drugs once developed they become tools to empty your pocket. If you don’t already know about it please use a discount service such as Good Rx or something similar. It can save you thousands of dollars a year.
Illustration by Owen Gent / ProPublica
A Record Price: The gene therapy Zolgensma helped children born with a fatal disease, spinal muscular atrophy, grow up to run and play. But the cost was stunning: $2 million per dose.
Cashing In: While taxpayers and small charities funded the drug’s early development, executives, venture-capital backers and a pharma giant have reaped the profits.
Priced Out: The drug’s cost adds to the nation’s ballooning bill for prescription drugs and puts Zolgensma out of reach for kids in many low- and middle-income countries.
Vincent Gaynor remembers, almost to the minute, when he realized his part in birthing the breakthrough gene therapy Zolgensma had ended and the forces that turned it into the world’s most expensive drug had taken over.
It was May 2014. He and his wife were sitting in the cafeteria at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.
Elsewhere in the hospital, an infant — patient No. 1 in a landmark clinical trial — was receiving an IV infusion that, if it worked, would fix the genetic mutation that caused spinal muscular atrophy, a rare, incurable […]
Donald Trump the first convicted multiple-felon, convicted sex offender, multiple-bankrupt to ever be elected President has framed and put his mugshot in the entry to the Oval Office in the White House to show his disdain and contempt for the law. It is his way of showing the world he sees himself as above the law, like a medieval king. It is a middle finger to Americans and part of his coup. The United States is becoming a neo-medieval authoritarian nation like something out of the 14th century, and a large percentage of Americans seem to be okay with that.
Donald Trump has framed and put his mugshot in the entry to the Oval Office in the White House to show his disdain and contempt for the law. It is his way to showing the world he sees himself as above the law, like a medieval king.
The legal counteroffensive against the Trump–Musk deconstruction of the federal government has begun. State attorneys general, unions, and other groups have already obtained multiple restraining orders and injunctions commanding that illegally frozen funds flow and illegally suspended employees be reinstated. However, the Trump administration has, predictably, proved reluctant to comply. Indeed, in some instances, it is simply defying court orders. For example, here in Colorado, more than $570 million in congressionally authorized funds is being unlawfully withheld from public and private groups, despite courtorders commanding that the Trump freeze on the money be lifted.
As a result, the media is full of speculation about what happens if the president simply ignores court orders. This question really has two parts. First, what can courts do to compel compliance with their orders? Second, what happens to the country if Trump remains recalcitrant and the […]
Here is a composite of a number of national polls on how Americans report their approval of Donald Trump and his coup. I think it is very important to recognize how resentful, White supremacist, angry, and accepting of christofascism American voters have become. The media either doesn’t understand this or is afraid to accurately report it. However, I have been checking the polls everyday for the last three weeks, and this is the reality. I think this also explains why so few people are out in the streets demonstrating. I understand hundreds are, but when you have a man who believes — based on his past experience, and the Supreme Court’s recent decision — that he is above the law and can do as he likes. And Congress is doing nothing substantial to stop the coup the only way it stops is for millions to be out in the streets every day. And I mean millions. I believe it is not unreasonable to think that we will be in a recession by June, and the entire world order will have changed.
This meeting of European leaders called by French President Emmanuel Macron, I believe, is the beginning of a major and historic geopolitical realignment. Donald Trump is not only carrying out a coup that is destroying American democracy he is also the cause of the dismantlement of the geopolitical power structure that has kept the world safe from massive war for eight decades.
French President Emmanuel Macron has called a meeting of European leaders to take place on Monday, according to two EU officials. Credit: Sameer Al-Doumy / AFP / Getty
MUNICH, GERMANY — French President Emmanuel Macron is convening European leaders for an emergency summit in Paris on Monday, according to Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday.
“I’m very glad that President Macron has called our leaders to Paris,” Sikorski said, adding that he expects the European leaders to discuss “in a very serious fashion” the challenges posed by U.S. President Donald Trump.
“President Trump has a method of operating which the Russians call razvedka boyem —reconnaissance through battle: You push and you see what happens, and then you change your position. … And we need to respond,” the Polish minister said.
The meeting will take place on Monday, according to two EU officials.
It was not immediately clear whether the meeting would involve all EU leaders, or only a smaller group of countries, and if other European leaders like U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer would also be invited.
Robert Reich , The Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center for Developing Economies - truthdig
Stephan:
I really am sorry, my readers, but I just don’t see any good news trends in the United States. Of course, there are some local good trends happening, but not nationwide. The facts and trends are what they are so I must report them. The American government has been sold to a small group of oligarchs and they are going to get wealthier while you bear the economic burden.
President Donald Trump listens as Elon Musk speaks in the Oval Office at the White House on Feb. 11, 2025. Credit: Alex Brandon / AP
Connect the dots.
Last week, Trump’s social media corporation — Trump Media and Technology Group, in which Trump owns a majority of shares — announced plans to sell financial products, including a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), aimed at what Trump calls the “patriotic economy.” Its shares jumped 6 percent on the news.
Devin Nunes, Trump Media’s CEO, said the Trump ETFs give investors a chance to put money into “American energy, manufacturing and other firms that provide a competitive alternative to the woke funds and debanking problems that you find throughout the market.”
Woke funds? Debanking problems?
Two weeks ago, Kash Patel, Trump’s nominee to direct the FBI, was given 25,946 shares in Trump Media, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. They are now worth about $840,000. What was this a payoff for?
The federal government is no longer protecting consumers of financial products.
Damian Carrington, Environment Editor - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan:
Professor James Hansen, known as the “Father of Climate Change for his 1988 presentation to the U.S. Senate, has been warning the American government and the world about climate change. The U.S. under the autocracy of criminal Trump and his lackeys is obviously paying no attention to his or anyone’s warnings, and we are all going to pay for this stupidity. All you Trump voters please let’s not also have to listen to your whining when the quality of your life is downgraded. Here is Hansen’s latest warning, “it’s too late.”
The analysis concluded that recent cuts in sun-blocking shipping pollution have raised temperatures more than thought. Credit: scphoto / Alamy
The pace of global heating has been significantly underestimated, according to renowned climate scientist Prof James Hansen, who said the international 2C target is “dead”.
A new analysis by Hansen and colleagues concludes that both the impact of recent cuts in sun-blocking shipping pollution, which has raised temperatures, and the sensitivity of the climate to increasing fossil fuels emissions are greater than thought.
The group’s results are at the high end of estimates from mainstream climate science but cannot be ruled out, independent experts said. If correct, they mean even worse extreme weather will come sooner and there is a greater risk of passing global tipping points, such as the collapse of the critical Atlantic ocean currents.
Criminal Trump’s coup is literally tearing the American democracy apart, and now he is even endangering the country’s security against nuclear war.
The first convicted felon and sex offender to ever hold the Presidency, Donld J. Trump. Credit: Chip Somodevilla / Getty
There appears to be mass chaos at the agency responsible for keeping a “safe, secure, and reliable” watch over the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile.
ABC News is reporting that hundreds of employees at the 1,800-person National Nuclear Security Administration were fired on Thursday. Many of them described the situation as a “national security crisis.”
The Department of Energy then suddenly paused the firings on Friday, frantically calling back employees to tell them they still have a job.
“This is creating unbelievable threats to our national security. Trump, Musk, and DOGE are wiping out the employees who manage our nuclear arsenal,” attorney and former Ukrainian Armed Forces member John Jackson wrote on X. “Every time someone retires, there will be no one to fill their slot.”
The confusion comes as the Trump administration on Thursday directed agencies to fire thousands of probationary employees in the federal workforce. While Trump is framing these mass firings […]
Louisiana has a quality of life roughly equivalent to a third-world country. It has the shortest life span in the United States, an infant mortality and maternal mortality rate like a developing country, Only 15% of lower-income students and less than half of higher-income students can read proficiently. The state is controlled by MAGAt Republicans. Now the MAGAts are attacking vaccination standards. As a result, I predict we will see outbreaks of childhood diseases that used to plague the U.S. but no one has thought much about them for decades because vaccines have eliminated them.
Louisiana Surgeon General Ralph Abraham, MD,
The Louisiana Department of Health has terminated mass vaccination campaigns and barred public health workers from recommending seasonal vaccines, The Times-Picayune reported Feb. 13.
Five notes:
1. Louisiana Surgeon General Ralph Abraham, MD, issued a memo to state health workers Feb. 13 that said medical decision-making should occur between patients and physicians, not public health workers.
“Rather than instructing individuals to receive any and all vaccines, LDH staff should communicate data regarding the reduced risk of disease, hospitalization, and death associated with a vaccine and encourage individuals to discuss considerations for vaccination with their healthcare provider,” he wrote in the directive, obtained by The Times-Picayune.
2. While the state’s public health divisions will still stock vaccines, the department “will no longer promote mass vaccinations,” the document said.
3. The New Orleans Health Department, which operates independently of the state, told The New York Times it would continue to promote childhood and seasonal vaccines, and expand its efforts to fill any gaps left by […]
