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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.

— Stephan

SCHWARTZ REPORT PODCAST

Schwartz Report Episode 52: Secrets of Happiness

How Fox News became the ‘greatest cancer on democracy’

Stephan: 

Thom Hartmann has put together the best profile of the Murdoch international fascist propaganda operation I have seen. Few Americans seem to recognize just how evil this family and their propaganda pseudo-news scheme are and what a toxic effect they have on multiple nations.

As soon as Vice Presdient Kamala Harris’ interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier began, the two sparred on the topic of immigration — with Harris reminding Baier that the Biden administration fought for a comprehensive border security solution only for former President Donald Trump to work behind the scenes to kill it. Credit: Screengrab | Fox News

We all saw it on Wednesday night. Bret Baier, the multimillionaire supposed “real news” guy at Fox, angrily and rudely lied to the face of the Vice President of the United States and his millions of viewers, presenting an edited version of Trump’s most fascistic remarks that turned truth on its head.

This is just the most recent example of the deadly toxins Fox “News” has been spreading across the American media and political landscape for decades.

The soil in which democracy grows and flourishes is truthful information held as common knowledge by the majority of the population. Lies, when presented as news or as truth-based information, become a poison that severely injures and can even kill a democracy.

American, […]

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The Atlantic Editor-In-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg warns newsroom decay is how ‘democracy decomposes

Stephan: 

Here is an interview with one of the most successful magazine editors in the country, Jeffrey Goldberg, who lays out his views on the decline of journalism in the United States, and what this means for the continuation of the country’s democracy. I agree with Goldberg, and see the decline of fact-based journalism, and the rise of weaponized misinformation operations like fascist Fox propaganda, as one of our major national cancers.

The Atlantic Editor-In-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg. Credit: Paul Morigi / Getty / The Atlantic)

In an industry beset by challenges, The Atlantic is a rare bright spot.

The 167-year-old magazine announced this week that it will expand, bucking the trend among fellow legacy newsrooms. The Laurene Powell Jobs-owned and Jeffrey Goldberg-led publication said it will increase its print magazine to 12 issues, returning to a monthly cadence for the first time since 2002.

The increase comes after The Atlantic announced earlier this year it had surpassed 1 million subscriptions and returned to profitability.

We caught up with Goldberg this week and discussed The Atlantic’s success, its partnership with OpenAI, the 2024 election, and more. Below is the Q&A, lightly edited for clarity.

Why do you think you have been successful in this difficult climate?

We work very hard to produce only highest-quality journalism. Sometimes, we don’t hit the mark, but not for lack of trying. Our operating theory is so simple. The only way to get people to pay for your product is to make a great product, something they can’t […]

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Columbus was a Sephardic Jew from Western Europe, study finds

Stephan: 

This isn’t a trend report, except that it shows what can be done to establish something as a fact, but I thought readers would be interested in it because whoever thought of Christopher Columbus as a Jew? Particularly since his remains are in a cathedral in Seville, Spain, an overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country.

A view of the mausoleum of Christopher Columbus in the cathedral of Seville, Spain . Credit: Marcelo del Pozo / Reuters

MADRID, SPAIN – The 15th-century explorer Christopher Columbus was a Sephardic Jew from Western Europe, Spanish scientists said on Saturday, after using DNA analysis to tackle a centuries-old mystery.

Several countries have argued over the origins and the final burial place of the divisive figure who led Spanish-funded expeditions from the 1490s onward, opening the way for the European conquest of the Americas.

Many historians have questioned the traditional theory that Columbus came from Genoa, Italy. Other theories range from him being a Spanish Jew or a Greek, to Basque, Portuguese or British.

To solve the mystery researchers conducted a 22-year investigation, led by forensic expert Miguel Lorente, by testing tiny samples of remains buried in Seville Cathedral, long marked by authorities there as the last resting place of Columbus, though there had been rival claims.

They compared them with those of known relatives […]

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Florida universities are culling hundreds of general education courses

Stephan: 

Floridians chose to elect a christofascist state government, but I get emails regularly from men and women who live in the state telling me what an awful place it has become in which to live. Politicians tell women and their doctors how they can control their bodies. Public education has been devastated. Libraries are being censured. In many places it is impossible to get home or business insurance. Little or nothing is being done to prepare the state for climate change. And now public universities are being censured to produce indoctrination instead of education. And so it goes, on and on. I will be very interested to see how the people of Florida vote in November.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other state Republicans pushed for a law saying state universities’ general election courses “may not distort significant historical events or include a curriculum that teaches identity politics.” Credit: Brynn Anderson / AP

TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA — Florida’s public universities are purging the list of general education courses they will offer next year to fall in line with a state law pushed for by Gov. Ron DeSantis targeting “woke ideologies” in higher education.

These decisions, in many cases being driven by the university system’s Board of Governors, have the potential to affect faculty and thousands of students across the state. Hundreds of courses are slated to become electives after previously counting toward graduation requirements, which university professors and free speech advocates fear is just the first step toward those classes disappearing entirely.

The state’s involvement in a curriculum process — which has historically been left to universities — is riling academics and students who oppose how officials are using new authority to weed out courses like Anthropology of Race & Ethnicity, […]

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Hurricanes Milton and Helene Were Intensified by Climate Change, Researchers Find

Stephan: 

Here is the confirmation of what I have been telling you: These catastrophic weather events are being enhanced by human caused climate change. We are going to see more of them, and their negative effects on the matrix of life will be more deadly. Yet, other than Independent Senator Bernie Sanders, do you hear anyone talking seriously about this? Neither do I.

Hurricane Milton, a Category 5 storm at the time of this photograph, in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Yucatan Peninsula on Oct. 8, 2024, seen from the International Space Station as it orbited 257 miles above. Credit: NASA / Getty

Hurricanes — the most powerful storms on Earth — are becoming more widespread and destructive as a warming planet increases their intensity. Hurricanes Helene and Milton are following the trend of these storms becoming supercharged and more likely to form, according to a pair of studies from the World Weather Attribution (WWA). 

The researchers found that Hurricane Helene’s wind speed on the coast of Florida was about 11% stronger due to climate change, and its total rainfall increased by 10%. The high water temperatures that fueled Helene were found to be between 200 and 500 times more likely, and hurricanes the size of Helene are now 2.5 times more likely each year due to climate change, according to the report.

As for Hurricane Milton, the researchers found storms of […]

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Group Sues Florida Over Harassment of TV Stations Airing Abortion Rights Ad

Stephan: 

Christofascist DeSantis and his fellow authoritarians are making it clear where the Republicans are headed. Another example occurred this morning when traitor Trump said it openly on the Fox fascist propaganda network. He told pseudo-journalists who were interviewing him that he was going up to meet with Rupert Murdoch and pressure him to not run any negative ads against him, or invite any Democrats to be interviewed on Fox. It couldn’t be more explicit. The Republican Party wants to end free speech in America, and will do so if they come into power. It is classic fascist behavior.

People hold up signs during a pro-abortion rights rally on the second anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade, in West Palm Beach, Florida, on June 24, 2024. Credit: Marco Bello AFP / Getty

An abortion rights group in Florida is suing state officials for suppressing free speech, alleging in their lawsuit that the state unconstitutionally threatened television stations that were airing its ads in favor of a ballot initiative that would overturn Florida’s extreme abortion ban.

Florida currently restricts all abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, granting only nominal exceptions in cases of rape, incest or when a person’s life is at risk — a standard that, in practice, is rarely allowed due to the ambiguous language of the statute and doctors’ fears over being prosecuted. The ballot initiative in question, sometimes referred to as Amendment 4, would expand abortion rights up to the point of fetal viability, generally regarded as 22-25 weeks of pregnancy. Regulation of abortion could occur afterward, […]

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Trump’s “Swiss” Watches Traced to Derelict Wyoming Strip Mall

Stephan: 

Gold gym shoes, Superman trading cards with himself as Superman, phony Swiss watches. I don’t think traitor Trump is capable of running an honest business. He has gone bankrupt six times, has been suited by unpaid workers who knows how many times, paid millions of dollars for a phony university, and on and on. I think Trump’s scheme is to milk his Presidential campaign for as many scams as he can rig, no matter how the election comes out. I find it very disappointing that the media has not pointed out that no candidate from any party has ever been a scammer like Trump. Can you imagine even incompetents like Reagan operating like this?

Sheridan, Wyoming

Last month, Donald Trump announced that he was selling limited-edition, gaudy watches ranging from $499 to the bargain price of $100,000, bragging about their Swiss-made precision.

But a CNN investigation traced the watches’ origin to a shopping center in remote Sheridan, Wyoming, where TheBestWatchesOnEarth LLC, the company behind the timepieces, is based. There’s no indication that a watch company is located at the building listed at the address, only a daycare. Its neighbors include an H&R Block, a Wendy’s, and a “vape and hemp smoke shop.”  

CNN couldn’t find the people behind the company either, because the business’s location allows it to legally hide those details from the public. The news network found that knocking on the door of the business’s supposed address didn’t answer those questions. Interestingly, the limited liability corporation behind Trump’s infamous gold sneakers is also based at the address, along with other random businesses. The watch company was registered on July 29, only two months before Trump announced the watch line.  

A lobbying firm that represents Montenegro’s government is […]

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Church That Worships With AR-15 Is Giving Away Trump Rifle

Stephan: 

This is what some Protestant Christian Churches have become. It has nothing to do with Jesus’ teachings, it just uses the Bible’s words. This is a replication of what happened to portions of the Protestant Church in Hitler’s Germany.

A Donald Trump-themed AR-15 is being raffled at the Rod of Iron Ministries’ annual Freedom Festival in Pennsylvania. 
Credit: Lisa Marie Paine / AP

There have been two assassination attempts against former President Donald Trump this election cycle, but that is not stopping the Rod of Iron Ministries from holding a raffle for a Trump-themed AR-15 at its annual Freedom Festival this weekend.

People are encouraged to register early for the Freedom Festival to receive free tickets and the chance to win a “Trump AR-15.”

The festival is put on by the Rod of Iron Ministries, a group headquartered outside of Scranton, Pennsylvania, that allows its congregants to bring their weapons to church. The group offers courses for pistol and rifle marksmanship, home defense shotgun and the “art of the draw.”

Newsweek reached out to a representative of the Freedom Festival for comment.

Sunday services, which the group calls “Sanctuary Church,” focus on scripture while also supporting “the right to bear arms and focuses on where God’s word, politics, morality and culture intersect,” according to the website.

Pastor Sean Moon, […]

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