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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.
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 […]
While “king” Trump and his vassals express no interest in preparation for climate change and want to “drill baby…drill.” The democracies of Europe and Asia are going in the opposite direction, and preparing to leave the carbon energy era. Here is the latest from Norway making this point.
EV Charging Station in Norway. Credit: AFP
Electric cars accounted for 89 percent of the new cars sold in Norway last year, a report said Thursday, pushing the country closer to reaching its goal of going fully electric by 2025.
“We need only 10 percent more to reach the objective for 2025,” the Norwegian Road Federation (OFV) said in a statement.
Of the 128,691 new car registrations last year, 114,400 were electric, the highest share of any major national car market and up from an 82-percent share in 2023.
Despite being a major oil and gas producer, Norway aims for all new cars sold to be “zero emission” starting in 2025, which is 10 years ahead of the goal set by the European Union, of which Norway is not a member.
In 2012, electric cars accounted for just 2.8 percent of sales, but they have since exploded thanks to various incentives.
Electric cars were exempted from many taxes, making them competitive against heavily taxed internal combustion cars. They have also benefitted from toll exemptions, free parking in public car parks, and the use of […]
The weaponization of misinformation has become one of the major trends shaping American culture. “king” Trump and the MAGAts in Congress are doing nothing to prepare the United States for climate change, and there isn’t much alarm because a large percentage of Americans, who get their news and commentary from social media think climate change is just a conspiracy scheme.
iPhone social media apps including TikTok, Facebook and X. Credit: Matt Cardy / Getty
With so many media sources these days — commercial television, social media, old-fashioned newspapers — some are bound to be more reliable in terms of accuracy than others.
Researchers have found that people who believe climate change is a conspiracy get most of their news and information about current events from social and commercial media sources.
After Donald Trump was reelected president, chief executive of Meta Mark Zuckerberg fired his company’s social media fact-checkers, with the intention of replacing them with a “community notes” format like the one used by Elon Musk’s platform X. The model relies on corrections added by users to posts that are false or misleading, Mark Andrejevic, a media professor at Monash University’s School of Media, Film, and Journalism, wrote in The Conversation.
The model has been described by Musk as “citizen journalism, where you hear from the people. It’s by the people, for the people.”
However, for this to work, the “citizen journalists,” as well as their readers, must value accuracy, accountability and “good-faith deliberation,” […]
Léonie Chao-Fong and Tom Phillips, Reporters - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan:
The incompetence of “king” Trump and his administration is becoming glaringly obvious as you have probably already learned. But let’s not overlook “king” Trump’s scheme to create concentration camps. Here, in a British newspaper, is an account of what is being done in at the Naval base at Guantanamo Bay. Similar plans are in process at several other military bases. And I can tell you that even in rural areas of the country ICE is in action. On my island today two families were captured by ICE agents.
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The US naval base outpost in Guantánamo Bay, in south-eastern Cuba, already has a facility used to house migrants picked up at sea. Credit: Miami Herald / TNS
Donald Trump has signed an executive order to prepare a huge detention facility at Guantánamo Bay that he said could be used to hold up to 30,000 immigrants deported from the US.
Trump signaled earlier on Wednesday that he intended to issue an order instructing the Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security to open a center in order to “detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people”.
“Some of them are so bad, we don’t even trust the countries [of origin] to hold them because we don’t want them coming back,” he said. “So we’re going to send them out to Guantánamo. This will double our capacity immediately.”
The US naval base outpost in Guantánamo Bay, in south-eastern Cuba, already has a facility used to house migrants picked up at sea, which is separate from the high-security prison for foreign terrorism suspects established in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks by Al-Qaida on the US.
