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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.
Stephanie Dhue and Sharon Epperson, Reporters - CNBC
Stephan:
As this report describes nearly three-quarters of Americans are now feeling economic stress as a result of the catastrophe being created by one man who aspires to openly be a dictator. I have been predicting for months that we would be in a recession by June; I think we are already in one. Our economy is much worse than I had imagined in my prediction. It is so bad that I increasingly feel that by June we may be in a depression. Yet MAGAt world still doesn’t seem to comprehend what is happening to them.
Inflation has been the main cause of financial stress for Americans over the last three years, according to CNBC/SurveyMonkey surveys. Meanwhile, 66% of respondents now point to tariff wars as a factor, according to a new CNBC/SurveyMonkey survey, conducted April 3-7.
Two-thirds of Americans are concerned that tariffs will hurt their personal financial situation, according to the survey of 4,200 adults.
Americans are growing increasingly uneasy about the state of the U.S. economy and their own personal financial situation in the face of stubborn inflation and tariff wars.
To that point, 73% of respondents said they are “financially stressed,” with 66% of that group pointing to the tariff wars as a main source, according to a new CNBC/SurveyMonkey online poll.
The survey of 4,200 U.S. adults was conducted April 3 to 7.
Americans feeling financially stressed
CNBC/SurveyMonkey polls from 2023, 2024, and this year have found that, on average, more than 70% of Americans said that they are stressed about their personal finances. This year’s survey found that 38% of respondents overall said they are “very stressed,” and 29% of high-earners with […]
John B. Alexandria, Contributing Writer - Daily Kos
Stephan:
John Alexander, who has considerable expertise in the geopolitical world, has it exactly right. Our democracy is crumbling into authoritarianism as the Republicans in Congress sit sucking their thumbs listening to Daddy tell them what to do.
The actions of many government organizations are more like the extinct East German Stasi, than those with former American values. On 26 March, as Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish Ph.D. student at Tufts University in Somerville, Massachusetts walked to class, masked plain-clothed DHS agents surrounded and arrested her. The secret agents then placed here in an unmarked black van and drove off. Quickly they would ship her out of state ending up in a Louisianna detention facility. Without notification or warning the US State Department had revoked her student visa. She was not accused of any crime.
Later Secretary of State Marco Rubio would lie to the press about the rationale for the visa revocation. Without providing evidence, Rubio stated that Ozturk didn’t “tell us that the reason you are coming to the United States is not just because you want to write op-eds but because you want to participate in movements that are involved in doing things like vandalizing universities, harassing students, taking over buildings, creating a ruckus.” While she was a coauthor on an op-ed addressing the plight of […]
Chloe Atkins and Matt Lavietes, Reporters - NBC News
Stephan:
We are now at a point in the Trump coup where you can be thrown out of the United States for what some official thinks you might think. Note particularly that the coup is using as a justification for its deportations what it calls anti-semitism, whenever anyone opposes Israel’s genocide of the people of Gaza.
Mahmoud Khalil by the gates of Columbia University last year. Credit: Olivia Falcigno / USA Today Network
Faced with a judge’s deadline to provide evidence that Mahmoud Khalil poses a national security threat to the U.S., the Trump administration responded with a brief memo citing the Columbia student protester’s beliefs in justifying his deportation.
Khalil, a graduate student who helped lead protests against the war in Gaza last year, was arrested by immigration authorities on March 8. On Tuesday, an immigration judge in Louisiana ordered the federal government to provide evidence by Wednesday justifying its attempt to deport him.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio responded Wednesday evening in a memo obtained by NBC News. In a one-and-a-half-page memo, he cited an obscure provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 to justify Khalil’s removal from the U.S.
Rubio said that while Khalil’s “past, current or expected beliefs, statements, or associations that are otherwise lawful,” the provision allows the secretary of state alone to “personally determine” whether he should remain in the country.
Benjamin Franklin and other Founders thought public libraries were so important that a library was one of the first things they established. Andrew Carnegie, an immigrant from Scotland, also saw the importance of libraries and he spent much of his fortune building and establishing public libraries all over the country, many of which still exist. But “tyrant” Trump and his subservient villains want to turn Americans into ignorant peasants. That’s why he closed the Department of Education, is cutting off all kinds of funding from colleges and universities, and now is going after museums and public libraries. Not just our economy and governmental structure are being taken apart. This is a carefully structured program to literally change the nature of American culture.
American public library Credit: iStock
Grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) were slashed overnight as Trump and the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) continue their decimation of federal arts and culture funding in the United States. According to AFGE Local 3403, the union representing workers at IMLS and other federal agencies, “terminations are estimated to number well over a thousand.”
“Upon further review, IMLS has determined that your grant is unfortunately no longer consistent with the agency’s priorities and no longer serves the interest of the United States and the IMLS Program,” reads the letter sent to recipient organizations last night, April 9, copies of which were reviewed by Hyperallergic.
The notices were signed by IMLS Acting Director Keith Sonderling, a recent Trump appointee who last month pledged to “promote American exceptionalism” at the cultural funding agency, raising serious concerns among civil […]
Chris Sims, Digital Content Producer for Midwest Connect Gannett - IndyStar
Stephan:
We are experiencing a coup created by a man who sees himself as above the law, basically the self-appraisal of every aspiring dictator, and yet if you look at the polls reported today you see that between 42 to 47% of Americans still approve what psychopath “emperor” Trump is doing: the dismantlement of United States democracy, and the destruction of the nation’s economy, healthcare, education, science, child care, and elder care. I find this data very revealing and think that what it is telling us is that it is accurate to conclude that what is happening to the country is not just the responsibility of our mentally ill President but of American voters themselves. If you know someone who voted for Trump tell them you hope they are enjoying what they have done to the country.
Psychopath “tyrant” Trump, and his fascist servant, Attorney General Pam Bondi, are, as quickly as possible, trying to destroy the judicial system of the United States. As a result over half of the attorneys in the Solicitor General’s office are resigning, and Trump is resentfully targeting law firms, many of whom are caving to his wishes. This article describes a favor he is doing for the Murdoch family and its Fox propaganda operation. Will an honorable rule of law continue in the United States? Today I would give you 60-40 odds that it will not.
President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House. Credit: Jim Lo Scalzo / EPA / Bloomberg
Susman Godfrey lawyers are also suing MyPillow’s Lindell for defamation
Trump is nearing $700 million in pro bono deals with other law firms
President Donald Trump on Wednesday targeted Susman Godfrey with an executive order as an aide said the administration was close to $1 billion in deals with law firms.
Susman represented Dominion Voting Systems Inc. in a blockbuster defamation lawsuit against Fox Corp. in which the media company agreed to pay a $787.5 million settlement. The firm is also pursuing a defamation case against Mike Lindell, a well-known Trump advocate and chief executive officer of MyPillow, on behalf of Dominion.
“We signed with many law firms, the ones that we thought were inappropriate, and they’ve all agreed to pay,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “We have another five to go.”
While Trump has publicized four agreements with law firms that have promised $340 million in pro bono services for causes the president supports, aide Stephen Miller said the administration was […]
This article stood out to me for two reasons: First, this is what the United States and its psychopathic “tyrant” Trump look like to media in the U.K. and other countries. Second, it is one of the first major media pieces I have seen dealing with Trump’s mental illness.
“In the last few days, we have had many conversations with macro fund managers,” Tom Lee, the head of research at the financial analysis firm FSInsights, wrote on Wednesday morning, before Trump backed down from most of his tariffs on U.S. trading partners.
He blamed Trump for the economic consequences, adding that “multiple officials have stated they do not want nor expect a recession. And there are enough economy-savvy advisors that they are aware of this. Moreover, the two-to-three percent fiscal stimulus needed to reverse a recession would negate any promised cuts to government spending.”
Trump induced market volatility on Wednesday after he put in place […]
The United States under “tyrant” Trump is going full Stalin. We are driving foreign students out of the country’s already deeply damaged universities and colleges. This is going to have several major consequences destructive to the nation’s wellbeing. First, foreign college students are going to stop applying to American colleges and universities. Second, did you know that approximately 46% of Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or the children of immigrants? Many of those founders were men and women who came to the U.S. to attend college. So when future company founders stop coming to the U.S., going instead to colleges in other countries, where do you think they will found their companies? “Tyrant” Trump is trashing not only the present-day United States but the future United States.
People hold signs in support of detained Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil while protesting the Trump administration at the University of California Berkeley campus on March 19, 2025. Credit: Godofredo A. Vásquez) / AP Photo
The Trump administration has reportedly revoked hundreds of student visas amid a widening crackdown on the U.S. Palestine movement.
In recent days, dozens of schools have announced that draconian measures by the Trump administration have targeted some of their students. The list includes the University of California at Berkeley, UCLA, Stanford, Ohio State, Minnesota State, Kentucky, Northeastern and Harvard.
Last month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio guessed that he had revoked about 300 visas since arriving in office.
“I don’t know actually if it’s primarily student visas,” Rubio told reporters. “It’s a combination of visas. They’re visitors to the country. If they’re taking activities that are counter to our foreign, to our national interest, to our foreign policy, we’ll revoke the visa.”
“My standard: If we knew this information about them before we gave them a visa, would we have […]
