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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.
As a madman and his enabling oligarchs and quisling Senators and Representatives are dismantling American democracy, social order, and economy they are also destroying all efforts to stop the planetary disaster being wrought by climate change. As a result, as I have been telling you, in 15 years we will be in a catastrophic civilization-altering crisis unlike anything in recorded history.
In a new review published in the journal Oxford Open Climate Change, scientists have issued an urgent warning that the fossil fuel industry and its products are driving intertwined crises threatening humans, wildlife and our shared future on this planet.
“The science can’t be any clearer that fossil fuels are killing us,” said lead author of the report Shaye Wolf, the Center for Biological Diversity’s climate science director, in the press release. “Oil, gas and coal will continue to condemn us to more deaths, wildlife extinctions and extreme weather disasters unless we make dirty fossil fuels a thing of the past. Clean, renewable energy is here, it’s affordable, and it will save millions of lives and trillions of dollars once we make it the centerpiece of our economy.”
The review’s focus is on the United States — the largest producer […]
The thing that stands out for me is the utter incompetence of the people in the Trump administration, and how much they wanted to be pampered and indulged. They claim they want efficiency but produce just the opposite. I wonder how many American voters realize that the two largest agencies overseeing health care in the United States are being run by two people who don’t have five minutes of medical training. And that the FBI is now being run by two MAGAt podcaster hucksters, Kash Patel and Dan Bongino, who know nothing of law enforcement. It is also interesting that Bongino, who is principally known for his pseudo-hyper-masculinity is such a weak and frightened man he has demanded a 24-hour 20-agent team of bodyguards to protect him. It will cost millions, but it is your money and mine, not his, so what does he care?
MAGAt huckster Dan Bongino, just made the Deputy Director of the FBI. Credit: Roy Rochlin / Getty
The MAGA podcaster who was tapped to be the FBI’s second in command has chosen to be protected by as many as 20 agents—while his predecessors have often had no security detail at all, NBC News reported.
Last week, the agency put out an internal call for agents willing to sign up to abandon their ordinary duties and protect Deputy Director Dan Bongino 24 hours a day for month-long stints, unnamed FBI officials told NBC.
A pair of former FBI officials told the outlet that level of protection could require a score of agents, pulling man-power away from important law enforcement teams at the bureau.
Unlike most deputy directors, who are FBI agents, Bongino had no experience at the bureau before he was hired by President Donald Trump and the agency’s director, Kash Patel. Bongino, 50, has previously worked as a Secret Service agent and a New York City police officer, although most recently he has been a popular pro-MAGA online commentator. He hosted Trump on his […]
Eric Katz, Senior Correspondent - Government Executive
Stephan:
The Department of Agriculture is being torn apart and moved out of Washington, D.C. entirely. The impact this is going to have on the wellbeing of farmers, whose average age is about 59, is going to be devastating. That guarantees that your grocery prices of anything those farmers grow is going to go up, even as many of them crash financially. If you don’t know anything about farming you don’t know that most farmers borrow money they use to buy or rent machinery, fertilizers, seeds, and other components of the farming process. They then pay it back from the income they make from selling their products. All of this depends to a large extend on financial help they traditionally get from the Ag Department. Assistance that is being dramatically reduced, even as the department staff that works with the farmers are being fired. I strongly recommend that if you aren’t already doing so you start a garden. Grow your own lettuce, onions, garlic, cabbage, and string beans. Go to YouTube and watch some videos that will show you how to do it. And I also recommend that you make it an organic garden. Don’t use chemicals and toxins. It will make a noticeable difference in your health, and the health of your family.
Sign marking the USDA headquarters in Washington, D.C. Credit: J. David Ake / Getty
The Agriculture Department is planning to dismantle its presence in Washington, D.C., according to several officials briefed on the plans, and will relocate those it does not lay off to three hubs around the country.
The locations for those new offices have not yet been determined, senior officials throughout the department have told employees in recent days, but the shakeup will impact thousands of headquarters staff. USDA is expected to offload one of its two Washington headquarters buildings, according to two employees familiar with the matter.
The relocations will accompany widespread layoffs at the department, according to four officials made aware of the plans, though the exact number is not yet clear. Those cuts are expected in late April or early May. Some employees have been told to expect the department to cut back to fiscal 2019 staffing levels—which would lead to USDA slashing around 9,000 of its 98,000 employees—while others have been told there is a an overall federal workforce reduction number the administration has […]
While psychopath “emperor” Trump and his cretinous minions blather on about efficiency while they dismantle the government and destroy the wellbeing of America, you and I are spending millions of dollars to pay for the “emperor’s” golf games. It is straight out of the reign of Nero and Caligula.
Democratic Representative from Texas Jasmine Crockett at the House Oversight subcommittee calling out the millions of tax dollars spent for “emperor” Trump’s golf games.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) slammed President Donald Trump for spending at least $26 million of taxpayer money to play golf in the first two months of his presidency.
During a DOGE subcommittee hearing chaired by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) on Tuesday, Crockett wondered why Republicans were focused on dismantling government services instead of cutting waste generated by Trump’s vacations.
“They are lighting the Social Security on fire, Medicaid on fire, Medicare on fire, 401(k)s on fire, Department of Education on fire,” she explained. “And instead, what we need to light on fire are Trump’s tariffs.”
“In fact, we could probably go a little bit further,” she continued. “Let’s talk about the fact that as of March 30th, Trump’s golfing has cost us approximately $26 million. And the last time I checked, we’re not getting anything in return for that.
Crockett noted that Trump was “going to golf as the markets were tanking.”
Damian Carrington, Environment Editor - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan:
Capitalism is fine, as long as there is one modification, the first priority must be that your capitalism must be conducted in such a way that it promotes wellbeing. Government policies must do the same. You can see how this works, and how it proves what I am saying is factually accurate. Look at the top seven happiest countries in the world. The central problem with capitalism in the United States, as this article describes, is that fostering wellbeing means nothing to the Trump government, and it is going to devastate your life.
The climate crisis is on track to destroy capitalism, a top insurer has warned, with the vast cost of extreme weather impacts leaving the financial sector unable to operate.
The world is fast approaching temperature levels where insurers will no longer be able to offer cover for many climate risks, said Günther Thallinger, on the board of Allianz SE, one of the world’s biggest insurance companies. He said that without insurance, which is already being pulled in some places, many other financial services become unviable, from mortgages to investments.
Global carbon emissions are still rising and current policies will result in a rise in global temperature between 2.2C and 3.4C above pre-industrial levels. The damage at 3C will be so great that governments will be unable to provide financial bailouts and it will be impossible to adapt to many climate impacts, said Thallinger, who is also the chair of the German company’s investment board and was previously CEO of Allianz Investment Management.
The core business of the insurance industry is risk management and it has long […]
Helen Branswell, Senior Writer, Infectious Diseases - STAT
Stephan:
American healthcare already the worst amongst the developed democracies of the world and by orders of magnitude the most expensive, has been so severely destroyed that your healthcare is already seriously compromised and your health may be at risk. Imagine, we have a system in which the two leading government agencies, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as Health and Human Services, are both headed by individuals who do not have even 5 minutes of medical training. Only you can change this, by nonviolently demonstrating frequently, buying nothing from a business that supported the monster, and voting only for Democrats.
Neisseria gonorrhoeae bacteria, which causes gonorrhea. Credit: NIH
At a time when the world is down to a single drug that can reliably cure gonorrhea, the U.S. government has shuttered the country’s premier sexually transmitted diseases laboratory, leaving experts aghast and fearful about what lies ahead.
The STD lab at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — a leading player in global efforts to monitor for drug resistance in the bacteria that cause these diseases — was among the targets of major staff slashing at the CDC this past week. All 28 full-time employees of the lab were fired.
STD clinicians and researchers were flummoxed, both because most of the other infectious diseases functions of the CDC were spared in this round of cuts, and because of the critical nature of the work the lab performed. Until the Trump administration announced the United States was withdrawing from the World Health Organization, the CDC lab was one of three international reference laboratories for STDs that worked with the WHO to conduct surveillance for infection rates and drug-resistance patterns and to recommend […]
James Poniewozik, Chief TV Critic - The New York Times
Stephan:
The one thing the monster and his MAGAt vassals are good at is the weaponization of misinformation. It is the main tool they use to keep the low IQ, low education, resentful and racist worshippers in a dark fantasy reality. And your tax dollars are being used to pay for this.
Some days the show is a prison drama: A mass of prisoners assemble under the watch of an authority. Some days it’s a police procedural: Protagonists in uniform conduct raids on dark city streets. Some days it’s a western: A figure in a cowboy hat patrols on horseback, keeping an eye on the wild frontier.
The show has many forms, but it is all one production — the social-media feed of the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem. Since she took office in January, the secretary’s online video presence has been helping a media-minded administration broadcast images of unsparing domination with a telegenic face.
Ms. Noem’s social feed drew wide notice last week when she posted a 33-second video from a Salvadoran prison where the administration has been sending detainees. Dressed in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement cap and active-wear, a $50,000 Rolex watch on her wrist, she warns that “if you come to our country illegally, this is one of the consequences you could face.”
Tom Sherwood, Staff Writer - Washington, D.C. City Paper
Stephan:
I have been waiting for this. All dictators like nothing better than huge ceremonial military displays. Think about Nazi Germany, North Korea, Stalin’s Soviet Union, and Putin’s Russia. So it appears So, that’s where we are headed on Saturday, June 14, for the maximum leader’s 79th birthday. It will cost tens of millions, as this report describes, but he doesn’t care, it’s your money and mine.
Convicted felon and President Donald Trump is planning a big military parade in June. Credit: Darrow Montgomery
President Donald Trump for years has lusted after a big military parade over which he could preside—just like he sees leaders do in other mostly authoritative countries.
During his first term in 2018, Trump wanted a grandiose military parade on the streets of D.C.
But Trump angrily and reluctantly canceled his plans after military leaders said it would cost $92 million and after District officials complained that heavy military equipment—tanks and planes included—would tear up the roadways and cost $21 million just for parade public safety.
Now, second-term Trump apparently won’t be denied.
According to a D.C. source with knowledge of the plan that’s still being developed, Trump has commandeered Saturday, June 14—the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army and, as it happens, Trump’s 79th birthday—for his military parade. It would stretch almost four miles from the Pentagon in Arlington to the White House, according to the source, who stressed that local officials are just learning of it.
Arlington County Board Chair Takis Karantonis, who describes Arlington as a “9/11 city” that is proud […]
