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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.
The status of the United States in the world has just been gutted by criminal Trump’s new Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Programs that depended on U.S. foreign aid worldwide have now been devastated. The result will affect millions of people, diminishing U.S, status and reputation worldwide. I think one should also see all of this as the personalization of America as a country under a king.
Sandra Ramos plays with her daughterat an improvised shack built with the help of the US Agency for the International Development (USAID) following hurricanes in La Lima, Honduras, in July 2022 Credit: Orlando Sierra / AFP
The United States, the world’s biggest donor, froze virtually all foreign aid on Friday, making exceptions only for emergency food, and military funding for Israel and Egypt.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio sent an internal memo days after President Donald Trump took office vowing an “America First” policy of tightly restricting assistance overseas.
“No new funds shall be obligated for new awards or extensions of existing awards until each proposed new award or extension has been reviewed and approved,” said the memo to staff seen by AFP.
The sweeping order appears to affect everything from development assistance to military aid — including to Ukraine, which received billions of dollars in weapons under Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden as it tries to repel a Russian invasion.
The directive also means a pause of at least several months of US funding for PEPFAR, the anti-HIV/AIDS initiative that buys anti-retroviral drugs to treat […]
Jake Johnson, Senior Editor and Staff wwriter - Common Dreams
Stephan:
While criminal Trump is using the powers of the Presidency to assure that the United States remains dependent on fossil fuel so the carbon energy oligarchs who funded him can maintain their profits, the United Nations Secretary-Genmeral Antonio Guterres describes this policy as a “Frankenstein Monster.” The result of the Trump policy will be to harm the wellbeing of the earth and all living beings on it, and to further diminish the status and reputation of America. We are a nation in such sharp decline that it is unprecedented in our history.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres addresses the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland on January 22, 2025. Credit: Fabrice Coffrini / AFP / Getty
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said during his address at an annual gathering of global elites on Wednesday that the world’s addiction to fossil fuels has become an all-consuming “Frankenstein monster” imperiling hopes of a livable future.
“All around us, we see clear signs that the monster has become master. We just endured the hottest year and the hottest decade in history,” Guterres said to the audience gathered at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“A number of financial institutions and industries are backtracking on climate commitments,” Guterres continued. “Here at Davos, I want to say loudly and clearly: It is short-sighted. And paradoxically, it is selfish and also self-defeating. You are on the wrong side of history. You are on the wrong side of science. And you are on the wrong side of consumers who are looking for more sustainability, not less. This warning certainly […]
Our new MAGA Trump villein Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as soon as he came into office, screwed up the lives of any trans-Americans. How many people are we talking about? According to the Williams Institute, about 1.3 million adults in the U.S. identify as transgender.
Marco Rubio is sworn in as secretary of state by Vice President JD Vance on Jan. 21, 2025, in Washington, D.C. Credit: Jabin Botsford / The Washington Post / Getty
Secretary of State Marco Rubio directed the State Department on Thursday to immediately stop processing applications from trans, intersex, and nonbinary people for passports that accurately reflect their gender.
Rubio’s order, a copy of which was provided to The Intercept, is one of the most immediate impacts of President Donald Trump’s bigoted executive order enshrining as a matter of federal policy that there are only “two sexes, male and female,” and that sex is an “immutable biological reality.”
The executive order, signed Monday, directed the State Department and other agencies to require that passports, visas, and government documents “reflect the holder’s sex” assigned at birth.
Starting in 2021, the State Department began allowing individuals to select a marker on their passport that accurately reflected their gender identity without requiring medical certification. In 2022, the State Department introduced an “X” marker for nonbinary, intersex, and gender-nonconforming people.
Rubio’s order eliminates these options.
“The Department will no longer issue U.S. passports … containing an X […]
Here is yet another fact-based report on the poor quality of American drinking water. I have been telling you for years (see SR archive) to get an independent water test. Unless you do this you will have no idea what your actual situation is. My wife’s best friend, a woman doctor, recently had a major health issue because there was arsenic in her water, and she is but one of millions with health issues arising from bad water. Arsenic is just one of dozens of pollutants that impact people’s water. Every time I see these reports I am reminded that there was a time, as late as the 1970s, when American water was considered the gold standard. I have been to 119 countries, and I couldn’t tell you in how many of those nations, I had to drink only bottled water, but it was a lot of them. Today it is reversed. Please get your water tested.
Pouring a glass of water from a kitchen faucet in Santa Ana, California on April 26, 2024. Credit: Leonard Ortiz / MediaNews Group / Orange County Register / Getty
More than 97 million United States residents have been exposed to contaminants in their drinking water that are unregulated and could affect their health, a new analysis by Silent Spring Institute has found.
Hispanic and Black communities have a higher likelihood of their water being contaminated by unsafe levels of toxic chemicals, a press release from Silent Spring said. They are also more likely to live close to sources of pollution.
The findings add to increasing concern about U.S. water quality and contamination’s disproportionate impact on communities of color.
Nearly 100 contaminants are regulated under the country’s Safe Drinking Water Act, which means public water utilities are required to test for them, as well as take measures to make sure levels don’t exceed set limits.
“Yet, we know there are thousands of other harmful chemicals that are not regulated that make their way into groundwater and surface waters, and some of these chemicals can ultimately end up […]
Robert Reich, Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center for Developing Economies. - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan:
Robert Reich offers some very good counsel in this essay. I detailed in my book The 8 Laws of Change how small groups can change the direction of a society, and this is the only way that democracy, equality, and the separation of church and state can be achieved. This is how Gandhi got independence for India without a war. This is how Nelson Mandela ended apartheit in South Africa. This is how Martin Luther King got the Civil Rights Act passed. This is how Americans ended the Viet Nam War. Congress and the Supreme Court are corrupted, the Executive Branch is corrupted. Trump is a fascist criminal who sees himself as a king. He feels he has gotten away with everything, and controls the United States. Only nonviolent citizen resistance by tens of millions of us is going save this country.
Erlinda hugs her 10-year-old daughter as they listen to Nora Sandigo, an immigration advocate, speak about options for their US-born children if they are deported on Sunday, in Miami. Credit: Marta Lavandier / AP
America has deep problems, which is why we can’t give up. Protect the vulnerable, organize boycotts and keep fighting. In light of Trump II’s predictably cruel and bonkers beginning, many people are asking: “What can I do now?” Here are 10 recommendations.
1. Protect the decent and hardworking members of your communities who are undocumented or whose parents are undocumented
This is an urgent moral call to action. As Donald Trump’s Ice begins roundups and deportations, many good people are endangered and understandably frightened.
One of Trump’s new executive orders allows Ice to arrest undocumented immigrants at or near schools, places of worship, healthcare sites, shelters and relief centers – thereby deterring them from sending their kids to school or getting help they need.
If you trust your mayor or city manager, check in with their offices to see what they are doing to protect vulnerable families in your community. Join […]
Expect food prices to go up significantly in the weeks to come, as well as medical costs. I think there is a strong chance that we will be in recession by June. Also, there are going to be new international crises. I think this is going to be a very difficult period because the Republicans in the Senate do not have the ethics or courage to impeach Trump and the Supreme Court is corrupt, so there is really nothing to stop him except massive citizen resistance as I described in the previous article. It’s up to you and me.
Migrant farmworkers with H-2A visas walk to take a break after harvesting romaine lettuce in King City, California, U.S., April 17, 2017. Credit: Lucy Nicholson
The country’s agricultural sector is in full-blown panic mode as President Donald Trump’s long-promised mass deportations are starting to become a reality in farming communities across the United States.
And the ripple effect could soon hit supermarkets, as the chaos surrounding Trump’s strict immigration policies – which already include stepped-up ICE raids – are already threatening to send food prices soaring before long, according to a report in The New Republic.
“Bakersfield, California saw a massive drop off in the number of field workers showing up for work Tuesday while ICE agents in unmarked Chevy Suburbans rounded up and detained immigrants in the area, profiling individuals they believed to be field workers,” the outlet reported.
The roundup resulted in acres of oranges left unpicked in the California sun during the most active period of the season.
Many undocumented workers have reportedly been targeted […]
Here is what honor and integrity in support of wellbeing look like. It happens so rarely in the United States today it is unusual and notable. Note that I had to go to the French press to get the whole story.
Michael Bloomberg was the centrist mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013. Credit: AFP
Bloomberg’s intervention aims to ensure the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) remains fully funded despite the United States halting its contributions.
The United States typically provides 22 percent of the UNFCCC secretariat’s budget, with the body’s operating costs for 2024-2025 projected at 88.4 million euros ($96.5 million).
“From 2017 to 2020, during a period of federal inaction, cities, states, businesses, and the public rose to the challenge to uphold our nation’s commitments — and now, we are ready to do it again,” Bloomberg, who serves as the UN Special Envoy on Climate Ambition and Solutions, said in a statement.
This marks the second time Bloomberg has stepped in to fill the gap left by US federal disengagement.
In 2017, following the Trump administration’s first withdrawal from the Paris accord, Bloomberg pledged up to $15 […]
One of the most important issues for the Founders, and an issue upon which there was very strong agreement, was the absolute separation between church and state. The christofascist MAGAt world is now trying to erase the Founders’ convictions on this issue, and this political trend is openly beginning in Texas, as this article describes. I predict we will see this in other Red states, and it will be a growing issue in the next four years.
Landon Schott, pastor of Mercy Culture, leads a worship service in the state Capitol extension auditorium on the first day of the 2025 state legislative session in Austin on Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. Credit: Eli Hartman / The Texas Tribune
Two hours after Rep. Dustin Burrows of Lubbock was elected Texas House speaker on Tuesday, Christian worshippers gathered in a Capitol meeting room to prepare for “spiritual war” and protect lawmakers from demonic forces.
“Pray for the fear of the Lord to come into this place,” Landon Schott intoned from the stage as a small band played acoustic hymns and 100 or so faithful laid their hands on walls, hoping to bless the room and ward off evil spirits. “Let the fear of the Lord return to Austin. In Jesus’ name.”
Schott is the pastor of Mercy Culture Church in Fort Worth, and was among the Christian leaders who spent Tuesday rallying fellow believers ahead of a legislative session that they hope will further codify their conservative religious views into law. He was joined in those efforts by a throng of pastors and Republican leaders, who […]
