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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.
Sachi Kitajima Mulkey, Staff Writer - Popular Science / Grist
Stephan:
I have a dozen more stories about the disaster that is occurring as “king” Trump attempts to get confirmation of the utterly incompetent people he is attempting to appoint. I have a dozen stories in my file about Kash Patel, Robert Kennedy, Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard, and a host of other horrors that have been nominated. But there are other trends in the world that are going to affect your life and the lives of millions of people in other countries. Here, for instance, is the latest on what is happening to the world ocean currents, and it is very bad news.
‘There’s been an uptick in that imbalance and that has led to an uptick in the rate of ocean warming.‘ Credit: DepositPhotos
The two years of heat have created a scientific mystery, with 450 straight days of record high global sea surface temperatures from April 2023 to July 2024 — a streak that exceeded climate scientists’ predictions even when accounting for climate change and the natural climate pattern known as El Niño. A study published on Tuesday by researchers at the University of Reading helps solve the puzzle and points to one prominent culprit: the sun.
The study in Environmental Research Letters found that the rate of ocean warming has more than quadrupled over the past 40 years, driven by Earth’s growing energy imbalance — accounting for roughly 44 percent of the extra […]
I have been tracking America’s literacy trend for years (see SR archive) because from the fifth century BCE, the linkage between literacy and democracy was understood; a correlation that still exists. Our democracy is in sharp decline as the news about “king” Trump’s administration reveals daily. And part of the reason for this, I believe, is because we are becoming an increasingly illiterate nation. Fifty four percent of Americans can’t read and comprehend past the 6th grade level and 43% can’t read and comprehend past 5th grade level. Here is the latest study of American public schools. It has a bit of good news and a lot of bad news. I note particularly that there is a growing schism between the literate and illiterate. In my view, this is an indication that the Great Schism Trend is going continue into the next generation.
Eighth-grade students are averaging their lowest-ever reading scores since the Department of Education began tracking nationwide progress in 1992.
The newly released results for the 2024 National Assessment of Student Progress paint a dim picture of reading skills among students who are on the verge of entering high school, even as the data shows that absenteeism rates have begun to trend down since the last NAEP in 2022.
Reading scores for 8th graders have fallen in eight states and seven of the nation’s 25 largest school districts since 2022. The results are even worse compared to pre-COVID-19 pandemic tests—8th-grade reading scores were lower in 28 states and 11 of the 25 largest districts compared to the 2019 NAEP.
“Today’s NAEP results reveal a heartbreaking reality for American students and confirm our worst fears: not only did most students not recover from pandemic-related learning loss, but those students who were the most behind and needed the most support have fallen even further behind,” the Department of Education said in […]
The stature of the United States in the world has suffered a massive wound. I predict the Chinese are going to step into the void created by “king” Trump. We are a declining nation both within our own borders, and geopolitically.
‘king” Trump Credit: Brian Snyder / Reuters
Chaos and uncertainty are swirling around the Trump adminisration’s new order halting most foreign aid grants for three months – and introduced the possibility that organizations dependent on federal funds could soon face bankruptcy, according to a report in Politico.
By Monday, groups spanning from health providers to landmine removers were still digesting the Friday directive issued by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, with some bewildered by its scope and still struggling to make sense of it, the report added.
“This ‘stop work’ order is cruel and deadly,” Health GAP executive director Asia Russell told Politico. “It will kill people.”
The sudden freeze, which reportedly shocked State Department officials, is spurring organizations to weigh which programs to cut and whether to trim employees or even cease operations, according to the publication.
“We operate on a shoestring budget,” the head of one non-governmental organization on the receiving end of funding from the State Department and USAID told Politico, who […]
“king” Trump, by gutting the science advisory panels of the EPA, is making it clear that the United States government during his administration is going to do nothing to prepare for the ongoing devastation of climate change. It is all part of Project 2025. As “king” Trump has said his administration is all about “drill, baby…drill.”
EPA’s acting administration has dismissed members of two science advisory panels. | Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP
Acting EPA Administrator James Payne has ousted all members of two of the agency’s most influential science advisory panels, giving President Donald Trump’s administration the opportunity to reshape them with its own appointees.
In an obliquely worded email sent late Tuesday afternoon, Payne said a decision had been made to “reset” the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee and Science Advisory Board “to ensure that the agency receives scientific advice consistent with its legal obligations to advance our core mission.”
EPA will seek nominations in the coming weeks, Payne added, with all members encouraged to reapply.
The CASAC provides independent expertise to EPA staff during statutorily required reviews of ambient air quality standards for lead, ozone and four other pollutants; the SAB offers scientific and technical advice on a range of issues.
Payne’s use of the word “reset” echoes language used by then-EPA Administrator Michael Regan, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, when he similarly fired members of both panels in […]
With all the other devastation being wrought by “king” Trump on the American government this hardly got mentioned, except in the medical newsletters. But “king” Trump’s purpose is clear. He and his MAGAt party are going to try to make political control of a woman’s body the national norm.
Anti-abortion demonstrators Credit: Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP
President Donald Trump announced Thursday he would pardon anti-abortion activists convicted of blockading abortion clinic entrances.
Trump called it “a great honor to sign this.”
“They should not have been prosecuted,” he said as he signed pardons for “peaceful pro-life protesters.”
Lauren Handy was sentenced to nearly 5 years in prison for leading the blockade by directing blockaders to link themselves together with locks and chains to block the clinic’s doors. A nurse sprained her ankle when one person pushed her while entering the clinic, and a woman was accosted by another blockader while having labor pains, prosecutors said. Police found five fetuses in Handy’s home after she was indicted.
Trump pardoned Handy and her nine co-defendants: Jonathan Darnel of Virginia; Jay Smith, John Hinshaw, and William Goodman, all of New York; Joan Bell of New Jersey; Paulette Harlow and Jean Marshall, both of Massachusetts; Heather Idoni of Michigan; and Herb Geraghty of Pennsylvania.
The outcry was so great yesterday that “king” Trump is backing down on some of his sweeping devastation of the American government through his OMB order. I think that should be prominently noted and reported on by media, although that isn’t what is happening. But I hope my readers have paid attention to this. I think we should also be very conscious that we are just at the beginning of what the MAGAts are going to try and carry out. For instance, look at this proposal that kids should be working at McDonald’s if they want to eat and free school lunches should be eliminated.
Republican Representative Rich McCormick. Credit: Samuel Corum / Getty
Republican congressman has suggested that children should work at McDonald’s instead of relying on federally funded school lunch programs.
Why It Matters
President Donald Trump‘s administration has ordered a temporary pause on nearly all federal grants and loans. The order, which is set to take effect at 5 p.m. Eastern time on Tuesday, could paralyze thousands of programs that use government money, including school lunch programs and childhood cancer research.
Matthew Vaeth, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, wrote in an internal memo ordering the pause on Monday that it was necessary because “the use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve.”
What To Know
Representative Rich McCormick of Georgia suggested during an interview with CNN‘s Pamela Brown on Tuesday that free lunch programs were a way for school children to “sponge off the government” after being asked if he would “support getting rid of school lunch for vulnerable kids.”
“When you talk about school lunches, hey, I worked my way […]
JoNel Aleccia, Moriah Balingit, Collin Binkley, Matthew Daly, Lisa Mascaro, Adithi Ramakrishnan, Amanda Seitz, Michael Sisak, Lindsay Whitehurst and Tammy Weber, Reporters - Huffington Post | Associated Press
Stephan:
Criminal Trump basically shut down the government today, despite his administration’s denial, but this move has been blocked by U.S. Districct Court Judge Loren L. AliKhan. However, the block only lasts until Monday. So we have five days to see whether Congress and governors can do something to stop what Trump has done. The United States literally stands on the edge of a precipice. By this coming Tuesday we will know whether America remains a democracy.
U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks at the House Republican Members Conference Dinner at Trump National Doral Miami, in Miami, Florida on January 27, 2025. Credit: Mandel Ngan | Getty
WASHINGTON , D.C. — U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan blocked the Trump Administration freeze action Tuesday afternoon, minutes before it was set to go into effect. The administrative stay pauses the freeze until Monday.A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked a push from President Donald Trump to pause federal funding while his administration conducts an across-the-board ideological review to uproot progressive initiatives.
The Trump administration plan plunged the U.S. government — and states and organizations that rely on federal funding — into panic and confusion and set the stage for a constitutional clash over control of taxpayer money.
The order from U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan came minutes before the funding freeze was scheduled to go into effect. The administrative stay, prompted by a lawsuit brought by nonprofit groups, lasts until Monday afternoon and applies only to existing programs.
Administration officials said the decision to halt loans and grants — a […]
The United States has become the most corrupt democracy (if you can still call America a democracy) in the developed world, and the reason for this is the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision which legalized the bribery of politicians. This produced a Congress of political whores, a corrupted Supreme Court, and a deranged President who thinks he is a king. Nothing will change any of this until Citizens United is overturned either by the Court or Congress. Whether that will happen before we become a christofascist state is up to you. It is going to take millions of Americans rising up in protest for any of this transformation to stop.
As President Donald Trump triumphantly returned to the White House thanks in part to a tsunami of campaign cash from oligarchs and corporate interests, democracy defenders on Tuesday marked the 15th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that unleashed such spending by urging action to overturn the decision.
In a nation where corporations and moneyed interests already wielded disproportionate power and influence over elections, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commissionreversed campaign finance restrictions dating back to the era of Gilded Age robber barons. The ruling affirmed that political spending by corporations, nonprofit organizations, labor unions, and other groups is a form of free speech protected by the 1st Amendment that government cannot restrict. The decision ushered in the era of super PACs—which can raise unlimited amounts of money to spend on campaigns—and secret spending on elections with so-called “dark money.”
In his Citizens Uniteddissent, Justice John Paul Stevens asserted that “in a functioning democracy the public must have faith that its representatives owe their positions to the people, not to the corporations with the deepest […]
