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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.
Criminal Trump has a long history of racism, and his White MAGAt voters love him for it. As this article describes we are seeing a whole new era of racism arise. I would not have thought it possible, but the facts are what they are. Notice the Red states that are also trying to end Black history courses in schools and colleges.
In the three-and-a-half weeks since Donald Trump returned to the presidency, investigations by the agency that handles allegations of civil rights violations in the nation’s schools and colleges have ground to a halt.
At the same time, there’s been a dramatic drop in the number of new cases opened by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights — and the few that attorneys have been directed to investigate reflect some of Trump’s priorities: getting rid of gender-neutral bathrooms, banning transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports and alleged antisemitism or discrimination against white students.
The OCR has opened about 20 new investigations since Trump’s inauguration, sources inside the department told ProPublica, a low number compared with similar periods in previous years. During the first three weeks of the Biden administration, for instance, the office opened about 110 new investigations into discrimination based on race, gender, national origin or disability, the office’s historic priorities. More than 250 new cases were opened in the same time period last year.
Historically, the bulk of investigations in the office have been launched after students or their families file complaints. Since Trump took office, the focus has shifted to “directed investigations,” […]
I got an email this morning from an SR reader who had just returned from a trip to Ireland. He told me he and his wife had gone to a pub with an Irish friend and, when the others in the pub realized he was an American, the contemptuous derogatory comments about the U.S. became so unpleasant that they had to leave. I went to The Guardian, the leading paper in the U.K. to see what they might be reporting. This is what I found. I don’t see anything about this in the American media, but if this is what Americans overseas are experiencing this is a big deal. I would be interested in hearing from readers outside of the U.S. or Americans who have recently traveled outside of the country describing what they are experiencing.
A person holds a sign with Orbán and Trump on it during an inauguration party outside the US embassy in Budapest, Hungary, on 20 January. Credit: Márton Mónus / Reuters
A pitiless crackdown on illegal immigration. A hardline approach to law and order. A purge of “gender ideology” and “wokeness” from the nation’s schools. Erosions of academic freedom, judicial independence and the free press. An alliance with Christian nationalism. An assault on democratic institutions.
The “electoral autocracy” that is Viktor Orbán’s Hungary has been long revered by Donald Trump and his “Make America Great Again” (Maga) movement. Now admiration is turning into emulation. In the early weeks of Trump’s second term as US president, analysts say, there are alarming signs that the Orbánisation of America has begun.
With the tech billionaire Elon Musk at his side, Trump has moved with astonishing velocity to fire critics, punish media, reward allies, gut the federal government, exploit presidential immunity and test the limits of his authority. Many of their actions have been unconstitutional and illegal. With Congress impotent, only the federal courts have slowed them down.
Issam AHMED, - Agence France-Presse (France) | Raw Story
Stephan:
As a scientist my entire adult life, and the son of an internationally recognized physician father and a surgical nurse mother, I am angered and appalled at what “emperor” Trump and his vassals are doing to America’s science community, organizations, and agencies. Everything this christofascist coup is doing to the United States degrades it, and degrades your life and healthcare. Look at the objectively verifiable data.
A sign with the logo for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at the Tom Harkin Global Communications Center on October 5, 2014 in Atlanta, Georgia (Kevin C. Cox/AFP)
Medical researchers left to compile national data by hand, contraceptive guidelines deemed essential by doctors erased, and the nation’s largest tuberculosis outbreak left unreported: President Donald Trump’s administration has thrown the US health system into uncharted territory.
Here’s a look at some of the biggest impacts.
– Key medical journal goes silent –
Within days of Trump taking office last month, the Health and Human Services Department imposed an indefinite “pause” on communications.
One of its first casualties was The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), a venerable epidemiological digest published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
For the first time in 60 years, the journal — which once published the first case studies of what would become the AIDS crisis — has missed two editions, with no word on when it will return.
“MMWR is the voice of science. The delay in publishing is dangerous,” wrote former CDC […]
You have almost certainly noticed it. My wife and I certainly have. “emperor” Trump promised prices would go down if he were elected. They have, in fact, gone in the absolute opposite direction. And because of Trump’s ignorance and bullying they are going to go much further up. We will be in a different world by June because Trump’s lackeys in Congress will do nothing to stop his poor judgment from becoming America’s reality.
Credit: CNBC
Key Points
The CPI accelerated a seasonally adjusted 0.5% for the month, putting the annual inflation rate at 3%, both higher than expected. The core CPI ran at 0.4% and 3.3% respectively, also above forecast.
Shelter costs continued to be a problem for inflation, rising 0.4% on the month. Food prices jumped 0.4% and energy prices climbed 1.1% as gasoline prices increased 1.8%.
Markets largely expect the Fed to stay on hold for an extended time and pushed the next rate cut probability out to September following the CPI report.
Inflation perked up more than anticipated in January, providing further incentive for the Federal Reserve to hold the line on interest rates.
The consumer price index, a broad measure of costs in goods and services across the U.S. economy, accelerated a seasonally adjusted 0.5% for the month, putting the annual inflation rate at 3%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday. They were higher than the respective Dow Jones estimates for 0.3% and 2.9%. The annual rate was 0.1 percentage point higher than December.
Rachel Feltman, Tanya Lewis, Madison Goldberg & Fonda Mwangi, Contributing Writer | Senior Editor for Health and Medicine | Science Journalist | Multi-Media Editor - Scientific American
Stephan:
Recently I have had four readers write to tell me that the MAGAt coup has just left them emotionally exhausted, and I had lunch with a friend today who told me the same thing. I understood what all of them were telling me, and it put me in mind of this article. If you feel the same way, read this conversation in Scientific American and perhaps it will be helpful.
Credit: Anaissa Ruiz Tejada / Scientific American
Rachel Feltman: For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, this is Rachel Feltman.
No matter what you believe, I’m willing to bet you’ve been feeling a lot of outrage lately. To me personally, it feels unavoidable: I can’t look down at my phone or glance up at a TV without seeing something that makes me upset. And that’s really exhausting. But when outrage is everywhere, what can we do to keep it from getting to us?
Here to talk to us about fighting so-called outrage fatigue is Tanya Lewis, a senior editor covering health and medicine at Scientific American.
Tanya, thanks for joining us today.
Tanya Lewis: Thanks so much for having me.
Feltman: So you recently wrote about this phenomenon called “outrage fatigue.” Could you tell us what that is?
Lewis: Sure, so outrage fatigue is kind of an informal concept, which basically refers to repeatedly experiencing perceived moral transgressions and feeling fatigued by them. So what that basically means is just, you know, you see something, you’re outraged by it, and over time you just become kind of numb to it.
Feltman: Sounds relevant to [laughs], to many of […]
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.”
Steve Holland and Nandita Bose, Reporters - Reuters
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 – […]
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
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 […]
