Germany Downgrades Growth Outlook, Now Expects Recession For Record 3rd Year, Blames Trump
Germany Downgrades Growth Outlook, Now Expects Recession For Record 3rd Year, Blames Trump
Entering 2025, Germany's economic situation had never been worse: following a 6th consecutive GDP contraction in Q4, the country which was once Europe's growth dynamo, has contracted for 6 consecutive quarters, the longest recessionary stretch in modern German history (since its 1989 reunification).
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But if anyone had hoped that the recent German pro-debt "revolution" in which Berlin eliminated its long-standing "debt brake" and unleashed an unlimited, debt-funded "defense" spending spree courtesy of an anti-democratic, fiscal stimulus putsch, which was rammed through in the final days of the outgoing government (even as the top political party in the new government campaigned on precisely the opposite plaform) meant that Germany would finally record some modest growth, will be very disappointed.
Earlier today, the German government slashed its economic growth forecast yet again, and now sees stagnation in 2025 instead of a 0.3% expansion as its had previously. The reason: why blame Trump of course, or as Reuters put it, "uncertainty from global trade disputes is set to hobble growth and dampen investment."
Exports are expected to fall by 2.2% this year, following a 1.1% decline in 2024. Next year, exports are expected to rise by 1.3%, but they won't since by then most German export markets will be in an even worse recession. Earlier this month, German economic institutes cut their growth forecast for this year to 0.1% from the 0.8% expected in September, taking into consideration initial U.S. tariffs on steel, aluminium and cars.
Germany was the only G7 economy that failed to grow for the last two years, and the tariffs announced by U.S. President Donald Trump could put Europe's largest economy on track for a third year without growth for the first time in history.
Only, it's not really Trump. Germany's energy intensive, export-driven economy was already struggling with high energy costs and weak global demand for its products as foreign companies - mostly China - chipped away at its competitiveness, and destroyed demand for German cars.
And while the US may or may not have stagflation (spoiler alert: it won't), Germany is now in it, with the government forecasting sticky inflation falling to 2% this year and then to 1.9% next year, down from 2.2% last year, at a time when the economy is contracting. At the same time, economic weakness will take its toll on the labour market, with the unemployment rate expected to go up to 6.3% this year from 6.0% last year, before falling to 6.2% in 2026.
In other words, the definition of stagflation.
While announcing the figures, Economy Minister Robert Habeck called for the European Union and the U.S. to find a solution on trade but also for the EU to prepare countermeasures if needed.
"Now the German economy is once again facing major challenges due to the unpredictable trade policy of the United States," Habeck said in a written statement.
"Given the German economy's close integration into global supply chains and our high level of foreign trade openness, the new US protectionism could have significant direct and indirect effects on our economic growth," he said.
For 2026, the government now expects growth of 1%, down slightly from its January forecast of 1.1%, expecting some uptick under the incoming government of chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz. Spoiler alert: expect yet another downward revision, and a record 4th year of contraction in about a year's time.
And the cherry on top: just as Germany desperately needs a much weaker euro, the concurrent collapse in the dollar - which will unleash a surge in US exports just as the Mar-A-Lago accord had stipulated - means the euro will stay strong and only a fresh NIRP cycle by the ECB, one which sends the deposit rate from 2% currently back to sub zero, has any hope of kickstarting growth in what was once Europe's strongest economy and is now officially the sick man of Europe.
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Fri, 04/25/2025 - 06:55
Whatever Happened To The Green New Deal?
Whatever Happened To The Green New Deal?
https://mises.org/mises-wire/whatever-happened-green-new-deal
Fresh off her 2018 upset New York Democratic congressional primary win, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (better known as AOC) and Massachusetts Sen. Edward Markey announced they were launching an ambitious legislative plan https://www.gp.org/green_new_deal
the Green New Deal.
While people who had a grounding in economic thought found this new initiative to be naïve at best and destructive at worst, nonetheless it has energized American progressives and other environmental true believers.
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The goals for the GND were right out of Central Planning Fantasyland, something that is obvious from reading from the https://www.gp.org/green_new_deal
:
The Green New Deal starts with a WWII-type mobilization to address the grave threat posed by climate change, transitioning our country to 100% clean energy by 2030. Clean energy does not include natural gas, biomass, nuclear power or the oxymoron “clean coal.”
The implementation of the Green New Deal will revive the economy, turn the tide on climate change and make wars for oil obsolete. This latter result, in turn, enables a 50% cut in the military budget, since maintaining bases all over the world to safeguard fossil fuel supplies and routes of transportation could no longer be justified. That military savings of several hundred billion dollars per year would go a very long way toward creating green jobs at home.
On top of that, the Green New Deal largely pays for itself in healthcare savings from the prevention of fossil fuel-related diseases, including asthma, heart attacks, strokes and cancer.
Moving to 100% clean energy means many more jobs, a healthier environment and far lower electric costs compared to continued reliance upon fossil fuels. Studies have shown that the technology already exists to achieve 100% clean energy by 2030. And we can speed up the transition by making polluters pay for the damage they’ve caused, starting with a robust carbon fee program.
The Green New Deal is not only a major step towards ending unemployment for good, but also a tool to fight the corporate takeover of our democracy and exploitation of the poor and people of color. Our transition to 100% clean energy will be based on community, worker and public ownership and democratic control of our energy system, rather than maximizing profits for energy corporations, banks and hedge funds.
We need to treat clean energy as a human right and a common good. We also need a just transition to provide resources to the low-income communities and communities of color most impacted by climate change.
The Green New Deal will provide assistance to workers and local communities that now have workers employed in the fossil fuel industry and to the developing world as it responds to climate-change damage caused by the industrial world.
The idea that, in five years, the entire grid will consist of electricity powered by windmills and solar panels, with more electricity being produced in 2030 than is currently generated using fuels such as coal and natural gas is preposterous on its face. However, the framers of the GND are not done, as they are promising a cornucopia of jobs and wealth:
The Green New Deal includes an Economic Bill of Rights, which ensures all citizens the right to employment through a Full-Employment Program that will create 20 million jobs by implementing a nationally funded, but locally controlled direct-employment initiative. We will replace unemployment offices with local employment offices offering public sector jobs that are “stored” in job banks in order to take up any slack in private sector employment.
The GND proponents believe they can accomplish a complete transition of America’s energy production by government fiat and through massive tax-fed subsidies. Of course, this kind of largesse needs legislation behind it and the true believers—led by AOC herself—settled on the infamous (and hilariously named) Inflation Reduction https://www.irs.gov/inflation-reduction-act-of-2022
of the Biden administration, one that supposedly would create nine million jobs and totally transform the US economy.
However, the promised transformation never occurred. Price inflation https://www.newsweek.com/one-year-later-president-bidens-inflation-reduction-act-total-flop-opinion-1820309
that were supposed to be built, or other promises that failed to get past the paper on which they were written. And there is good reason for why the GND and the Inflation Reduction Act have failed other than for the lack of political will.
Austrian economics offers the following explanation: one cannot ignore the issues behind economic calculation. More than a century ago, Ludwig von Mises warned in https://cdn.mises.org/Socialism%20An%20Economic%20and%20Sociological%20Analysis_3.pdf
, economic planning requires what he called a “common denominator” that would guide the planners:
In the capitalist system all designing and planning is based on the market prices. Without them all the projects and blueprints of the engineers would be a mere academic pastime. They would demonstrate what could be done and how. But they would not be in a position to determine whether the realization of a certain project would really increase material well-being or whether it would not, by withdrawing scarce factors of production from other lines, jeopardize the satisfaction of more urgent needs, that is, of needs considered more urgent by the consumers. The guide of economic planning is the market price. The market prices alone can answer the question whether the execution of a project P will yield more than it costs, that is, whether it will be more useful than the execution of other conceivable plans which cannot be realized because the factors of production required are used for the performance of project P.
The Green New Deal and its accompanying legislation—the Inflation Reduction Act—have been based upon the belief that government agents can identify problems and impose solutions by directing resources through command-and-control. While their system gives a nod to prices and private ownership, at best, the organizational structure would resemble what came out of Italy and Germany in the 1930s, or Fascism. Profits and market prices don’t guide that system; indeed, the organizers of the GND and the IRA see profits and market prices as hindrances to their plans, for they represent the capitalist scourge of placing profits above people.
Yet, as Mises noted, the system will grind to a near halt without the “common denominator” of market prices, and that is what we have seen. While New York Times columnist Ezra Klein https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/13/opinion/doge-abundance-government-bulding.html
the lack of progress made by the Biden administration to carry out its grandiose plans, it also is clear that he fails to understand the roots of that failure:
Delay has become the default setting of American government. The 2021 infrastructure law was supposed to pump hundreds of billions into roads, bridges, rural broadband, electric vehicle chargers. By 2024, few of its projects were finished or installed. That wasn’t because Biden or his team wanted to run for re-election on the backs of news releases rather than ribbon cuttings. But the administration didn’t make the changes necessary to deliver on a time frame the public could feel. Many members of Biden’s staff now bitterly regret it. That includes Sullivan, who described his experience as “profoundly radicalizing.”
“Whether it’s infrastructure or submarines or energy generation or transmission lines or chip fabs — it is crazy the extent to which we have clogged up our delivery,” Sullivan told me. “Part of it is laws and regulations. Part of it is the self-deterrence of caution. Part of it is litigation. Part of it is complacency. Part of it is bureaucracy. But what I encountered in my four years as national security adviser was a constant and growing set of obstacles to getting anything done fast. It was a huge frustration. Huge.”
Indeed, the vast regulatory system that is the very pride of the progressive movement of the past 120 years plays a part in the inability of governments to carry out many of their grandiose schemes. But it is much more than just regulation; without market prices and the prospects of profits and losses, the government planners tasked with implementing these programs are unable to make rational economic decisions. When their own fiat decision-making process runs headlong into the regulatory system that was created to deter private enterprise from building profitable projects, what remains is a wealth-killing stalemate.
The Green New Deal has not failed because of a lack of political will or because government regulators were too good at their jobs. It failed because it is based upon a socialistic model of command-and-control akin to the former Soviet Union.
Mises told us that very thing 100 years ago and world events since then have only confirmed he was telling the truth.
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Fri, 04/25/2025 - 06:30
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/whatever-happened-green-new-deal
Meet The "Other" EV Brands Challenging Tesla's Domination
Meet The "Other" EV Brands Challenging Tesla's Domination
As Tesla continues to dominate the global EV conversation, a wave of upstart and established players—many of them based in China—are rising fast, offering compelling alternatives based on affordability, innovation, and scale. A recent comparative study by Slot.Day lays bare the shifting dynamics in the EV landscape, assessing automakers across sales, search interest, safety, price, and electric range.
Leading the charge is BYD, which now tops the list as the most viable EV alternative to Tesla, accrording to a new https://slot.day/
.
With over 2.6 million units sold and more than 600,000 monthly Google searches, BYD blends scale with visibility. Prices range from a modest $13,900 to a luxury-tier $65,830, while its vehicles achieve an average 445 km range and top safety ratings. It’s a rare mix of affordability, mass appeal, and performance—an EV juggernaut grounded in realism rather than aspiration.
In second place, SAIC Maxus is perhaps the most underrated name on the list. It offers the lowest entry-level EV at just $4,460—a figure that borders on the absurd in today’s market—and backs it up with a perfect 5-star safety score and a respectable 365 km range. This kind of value-driven engineering speaks directly to practical consumers rather than subsidy-chasing status seekers.
says that Changan, in third, makes its mark with a stellar 95% adult occupant protection rating and a 450 km range. While not yet globally synonymous with electric innovation, its performance metrics suggest it soon might be. The Deepal SL03 has particularly impressed in the mid-price market, starting around $16,400.
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Further down the list, Wuling ranks fourth thanks to astonishing sales of over 370,000 units and a starting price of just $6,400. Though its average range is a modest 300 km, it thrives in dense urban environments where range anxiety is minimal. The tiny but mighty Wuling Hongguang Mini EV proves that minimalist mobility has a devoted customer base.
Aion stands out with the longest average range at 520 km and remains price-competitive, offering models between $17,800 and $29,000. Though not fully ANCAP-tested, its high safety rating (4.6 out of 5) and expanding lineup push it into fifth place.
Outside China, few non-domestic brands crack the top rankings. Volkswagen Group, despite strong brand recognition and more than 1.6 million monthly searches, is weighed down by high pricing and middling EV sales. Its ID.4 maintains the group’s reputation but struggles to outpace nimbler rivals.
Nio, Leapmotor, and Geely round out the top ten with mixed results—each showing promise in select metrics but lacking the comprehensive strength to push into the top tier. Nio appeals to premium buyers, while Leapmotor targets the budget segment with modest ranges and excellent safety. Geely, versatile but uneven, finds itself in a middle ground that may appeal to some but excite few.
Hyundai, the sole Korean entry, closes the list at tenth. Despite solid safety marks and over 860,000 monthly searches, it lags in sales and innovation compared to its Chinese peers. Its Ioniq series shows promise but faces fierce competition from more agile, lower-cost challengers.
The broader message from this data? The center of gravity in the EV world is shifting East, driven not by regulation or ESG posturing, but by market forces—price, safety, and efficiency. Tesla remains the aspirational brand, but for millions of global buyers, especially those not chasing subsidies or status, it's these emerging names—often quietly efficient, fiercely cost-effective, and proudly pragmatic—that are shaping the real electric revolution, the study https://slot.day/
.
A spokesperson said: “Electric vehicle shoppers today are showing a clear shift in priorities. What once revolved around brand recognition is now driven by a mix of everyday considerations—price, range, safety, and availability. The data points to a maturing market where buyers are more willing to explore newer names and lesser-known models if the value is clear. It’s no longer just about who made the car, but what it offers in real terms.”
You can access the full study research https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vT9WWmYqPIxiAUEgCQfzbED1ND4n3BKmb7hWQnP7QwRFyKBN-XD1vZNflriMpIz8VeeqWHO-vXQ-bj8/pubhtml
.
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Fri, 04/25/2025 - 05:45
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/meet-other-ev-brands-challenging-teslas-domination
Netherlands To Create Low-Security Detention Centers, Area Bans For Troublesome Asylum-Seekers
Netherlands To Create Low-Security Detention Centers, Area Bans For Troublesome Asylum-Seekers
Dutch Asylum Minister Marjolein Faber, of the Party for Freedom (PVV), is initiating trial detention areas for disruptive asylum seekers in the Ter Apel registration center, as well as restrictions on where they can go, https://www.telegraaf.nl/nieuws/31266776/faber-begint-proef-met-gebiedsverbod-voor-overlastgevende-asielzoekers-in-azc-ter-apel
reports.
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A trial “process availability location” (PBL) will be created in Ter Apel to detain “disadvantaged” asylum seekers who misbehave on public transport or shoplift. They must report there twice a day, may only stay in and around the asylum seekers’ center, and will be banned from entering residential and village areas.
Faber adds that anyone who does not comply with the rules can be locked up.
“The behavior of a group of disruptive and criminal asylum seekers who abuse the hospitality offered in the Netherlands and cause nuisance and damage is, in whatever form, absolutely unacceptable,” said Faber.
The PVV minister is taking action after the majority in the Dutch House of Representatives agreed that repeatedly disruptive asylum seekers need to be dealt with more quickly and severely. Her suggestion for the PBLs comes after her predecessor, Eric van der Burg (VVD), tried to do the same but had to stop it after a court ruling
Faber claims this will help get those migrants with behavioral problems — and little chance of being granted asylum — out of the Netherlands faster.
The PBLs will help keep an eye on them and record their behavior as (and if) it deteriorates, she says.
The new PBL in Ter Apel is specifically designed for lighter forms of nuisance and recidivism, such as shoplifting. Although not strict enough in cases demanding even tighter security, they are sufficient to justify restricting freedom.
Het is onverteerbaar dat asielzoekers die in ons land aankloppen voor veiligheid, bewoners intimideren en onveiligheid veroorzaken. Deze overlastgevers verdienen de zwaarst mogelijke aanpak. Ik tolereer geen enkel overlast. Nu niet. Nooit niet.https://t.co/tV3swCE8A5
— Marjolein Faber (@MinisterAenM) https://twitter.com/MinisterAenM/status/1915076999208731044?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
“It is unacceptable that asylum seekers who come to our country for safety, intimidate residents, and cause insecurity. These troublemakers deserve the toughest possible approach. I will not tolerate any nuisance. Not now. Not ever,” she posted on X.
PVV Chairman Geert Wilders reposted Faber’s post, adding “Area bans for asylum seekers!”
Gebiedsverboden voor asielzoekers! 💪 https://t.co/dCRc6dCBkO
— Geert Wilders (@geertwilderspvv) https://twitter.com/geertwilderspvv/status/1915092102897094936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
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Fri, 04/25/2025 - 05:00
India Throws Trump A Harley-Davidson Olive Branch In Trade Talks
India Throws Trump A Harley-Davidson Olive Branch In Trade Talks
President Donald Trump hinted overnight at a potential easing of the trade war with Beijing, suggesting that the current 145% tariffs on Chinese goods "could come down substantially"—though he added, "but it won't be zero." The trade news extended beyond China as Vice President Vance continued his four-day visit to India, raising new hopes for a swift trade agreement.
, citing sources, the Narendra Modi-led administration may have extended an olive branch to the Trump administration by potentially lowering trade barriers for U.S. motorcycle maker Harley-Davidson, specifically for motorbikes with engine capacities over 750cc or more in India.
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Here's more color on the Harley-Davidson olive branch:
The offer aims to tear down tariff barriers largely for the iconic American bike maker Harley-Davidson Inc. and will expand on India's budget-time concessions when duties on motorcycles up to 1600cc were slashed to 40% from 50% earlier. The market for such high-capacity motorcycles in India is a tiny fraction of the nearly 16 million units sold every year, making this concession relatively painless for the local industry.
India is also willing to extend a similar zero-for-zero duty arrangement to auto parts, another category where it sees export competitiveness and minimal domestic resistance, people familiar said.
The Harley-Davidson olive branch also comes after Trump slapped 26% reciprocal tariffs on India, but soon after, paused for 90 days so both sides could hammer out trade deals. Still, the baseline 10% tariff remains.
On Monday, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and VP Vance said trade talks between both countries made "significant" progress.
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On Tuesday, VP Vance also touted progress toward a U.S.-India trade deal while speaking in the northwestern Indian city of Jaipur.
"Both of our governments are hard at work on a trade agreement built on shared priorities, like creating new jobs, building durable supply chains and achieving prosperity for our workers," VP Vance said, adding, "In our meeting yesterday, Prime Minister Modi and I made very good progress on all of those points, and we're especially excited to formally announce that America and India have officially finalized the terms of reference for the trade negotiations. I think this is a vital step toward realizing President Trump and Prime Minister Modi's vision because it sets a roadmap toward a final deal between our nations. I believe there is much America and India can accomplish together."
VP Vance also noted: "Americans want further access to Indian markets. This is a great place to do business, and we want to give our people more access to this country. And Indians, we believe, will thrive from greater commerce in the United States. This is very much a win-win partnership. It certainly will be far into the future."
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Fri, 04/25/2025 - 04:15
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/india-throws-trump-harley-davidson-olive-branch-trade-talks
The American Menace: Leading Liberals Call Upon Europeans To Resist The United States
The American Menace: Leading Liberals Call Upon Europeans To Resist The United States
in Munich this year, Vice President J.D. Vance confronted the Europeans over their attacks on free speech, declaring “If you are running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing America can do for you.” That is manifestly true, but it appears that there is something that certain Americans can still do for Europe. As the European Union ramps up its long-standing campaign against free speech, it is increasingly calling upon Americans to make the case against both free speech and the United States.
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The Europeans and globalists see the Trump Administration as a threat in the effort to create transnational governance systems. German diplomat Christoph Heusgen became emotional in responding to Vance, declaring “It is clear that our rules-based international order is under pressure. It is my strong belief that this more multipolar world needs to be based on a single set of norms and principles.”
American politicians and journalists quickly added their voices of condemnation. https://nypost.com/2025/02/16/us-news/cbs-host-margaret-brennan-slammed-for-claiming-free-speech-was-weaponized-in-germany-to-carry-out-holocaust/
to suggest that Vance’s support for free speech was outrageous because he was “standing in a country where free speech was weaponized to conduct a genocide.” Brennan’s bizarre suggestion that free speech contributed to the death camps was amplified by Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) who accused Vance of using “some of the same language that Hitler used to justify the Holocaust.”
After the Munich speech, some of the leading anti-free speech figures in the world gathered at the World Forum in Berlin. I was one of the few https://jonathanturley.org/2025/03/24/a-new-world-order-with-european-values-the-unholy-union-of-globalism-and-anti-free-speech-measures/
that declared “A New World Order with European Values.” Various Americans were present to reaffirm the worst about the United States as a nation descending into tyranny.
The two most celebrated figures were Bill and Hillary Clinton, who also criticized the current Administration.
The appearance of Hillary Clinton was particularly chilling for the free speech community at the Forum. Clinton has been unrelenting in her attacks on free speech and is a favorite of globalists who want to create this new world order. After Musk bought Twitter with the intention of restoring free speech protections, Clinton https://jonathanturley.org/2022/11/02/eu-moves-against-twitter-to-block-free-speech-protections-after-calls-from-clinton-and-other-democratic-leaders/
arresting those spreading disinformation.
The EU did precisely that and is now threatening Musk with confiscatory fines unless he resumes the censorship of Americans and others.
After returning from Berlin, I https://jonathanturley.org/2025/03/25/turley-to-testify-in-the-senate-judiciary-committee-on-free-speech/
in the Senate Judiciary Committee and warned about the building threat to free speech from the use of the DSA.
Since then, the EU has moved forward with its aggressive campaign against U.S. companies and figures who are not yielding to their expansive censorship demands.
They continue to rely on Americans to make the case against the United States and they are finding a long list of eager experts.
Many are disgruntled Democrats after the election or “disinformation experts” left without positions or grants after the start of the Trump administration. Unemployed censors now roam the Earth like rōnin, or masterless disgraced samurai. They are finding opportunities in Europe where free speech in a virtual free fall.
It was not surprising, therefore, that Nina Jankowicz, the former head of Biden’s infamous Disinformation Governance Board, https://jonathanturley.org/2025/04/23/back-with-a-vengeance-former-biden-disinformation-governance-board-chief-chief-nina-jankowicz-tells-european-union-to-oppose-the-united-states/
the 27 EU countries to fight against the United States, which she called a world threat.
” came to alight upon the European Union is little surprise. Appealing before one of the most anti-free speech bodies in the world. The “New World Order with European Values” notably does not include robust protections for free speech.
as a foreign agent to continue her work to block views that she considers disinformation.
Jankowicz fed the anti-American fervor sweeping over Europe. While she was called to address Russian disinformation, she went out of her way to attack the United States as a global menace: “Before I describe the details of Russia’s recent online influence campaigns, I would like to call upon you to stand firm against another autocracy: The United States of America.”
The false portrayal of the United States as a lawless, autocratic nation no doubt thrilled the Europeans. In announcing her heading a private disinformation group called the American Sunlight Project, Jankowicz https://jonathanturley.org/2024/04/28/shes-baaaack-disinformation-czar-jankowicz-to-head-new-project-before-election/
the same hysteria to attract donors, insisting that “Disinformation knows no political party. Its ultimate victim is our democracy.”
Of course, Jankowicz herself has been accused of https://nypost.com/2022/04/28/wh-pick-for-disinformation-board-spread-hunter-biden-laptop-lie/
The ultimate irony is that Jankowicz knows that she can count on many of us in the free speech community to support her right to spread such sensational and inflammatory information. She has every right to trash this country and the results of the election.
Jankowicz has clearly found a home with globalists in Europe where our “Mary Poppins of Disinformation” is “https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXn3r5plloI
.”
Of course, these “defenders of democracy” are advocating for precisely what they are condemning in seeking greater state controls over speech and individual rights.
The new diaspora of disgruntled American liberals and censors will find eager European audiences to hear their tales of woe.
Jonathan Turley is the author of best-selling book “https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1668047047?tag=simonsayscom
.”
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Fri, 04/25/2025 - 03:30
WHO Announces 'Significant' Layoffs Three Months After Trump Halts US Funding
WHO Announces 'Significant' Layoffs Three Months After Trump Halts US Funding
Three months after President Donald Trump signed an https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/withdrawing-the-united-states-from-the-worldhealth-organization/
, citing director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
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Of note, the WHO has received over $3.5 billion from US taxpayers since 2010.
In Trump's Jan. 20 order halting US funding from the United Nations body, the president cited WHO's "mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic that arose out of Wuhan, China," as well as other global health concerns. It was Trump’s second attempt to withdraw from the WHO - the first being in 2020 over the WHO’s complicity in China’s coverup of details surrounding the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition to praising Beijing for its response to Covid, https://www.openthebooks.com/assets/1/6/WHO_Factsheet.pdf
during the pandemic and claiming asymptomatic spread of COVID was 'highly unlikely', the WHO halted a 2020 study on the effect of Hydroxychloroquine on coronavirus.
to Tedros, Trump listed several claims from the WHO about the coronavirus "that were either grossly inaccurate or misleading," including:
• On January 14, 2020, the World Health Organization gratuitously reaffirmed China's now-debunked claim that the coronavirus could not be transmitted between humans, stating: "Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCov) identified in Wuhan, China." This assertion was in direct conflict with censored reports from Wuhan.
• On January 21, 2020, President Xi Jinping of China reportedly pressured you not to declare the corona virus outbreak an emergency. You gave in to this pressure the next day and told the world that the coronavirus did not pose a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. Just over one week later, on January 30, 2020, overwhelming evidence to the contrary forced you to reverse course.
• On January 28, 2020, after meeting with President Xi in Beijing, you praised the Chinese government for its "transparency" with respect to the coronavirus, announcing that China had set a "new standard for outbreak control" and "bought the world time." You did not mention that China had, by then, silenced or punished several doctors for speaking out about the virus and restricted Chinese
This is the letter sent to Dr. Tedros of the World Health Organization. It is self-explanatory! https://t.co/pF2kzPUpDv
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1262577580718395393?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
According to Tedros, "The refusal of the US to pay its assessed contributions for 2024 and 2025, combined with reductions in official development assistance by some other countries, means we are facing a salary gap for the 2026–27 biennium of between $560 and $650 million."
The lower end of that spectrum "represents about 25 percent of staff costs," he continued, adding that "that doesn't necessarily mean a 25-percent cut to the number of positions."
As such, "we will be saying goodbye to a significant number of colleagues."
Tedros insisted that the most significant impact would likely be felt at the organisation's headquarters in Geneva. "We are starting with reductions in senior management," he said.
"We are reducing the senior leadership team at headquarters from 12 to seven, and the number of departments will be reduced by (more than) half, from 76 to 34," Tedros said.
WHO's regional offices would meanwhile be affected "to varying degrees", he said, adding that some country offices in wealthier countries would likely be closed.
"These are very painful decisions for all of us," Tedros said.
The WHO chief insisted the situation could have been worse.
WHO member states agreed in 2022 to significantly increase membership fees and reduce the portion of WHO's budget covered by less reliable and often earmarked voluntary contributions. -AFP
The WHO employs more than 8,000 people worldwide.
https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden
Fri, 04/25/2025 - 02:45
€55,000 To Get Migrants To Go Home? Sweden Ups Golden-Handshakes To Encourage Re-Migration
€55,000 To Get Migrants To Go Home? Sweden Ups Golden-Handshakes To Encourage Re-Migration
A new proposal from the Swedish government would dramatically raise financial incentives for migrants to return to their countries of origin, with individuals eligible to receive up to SEK 350,000 (€32,000) and families up to SEK 600,000 (€55,000) as part of a broader effort to curb immigration and address integration challenges.
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Migration Minister Johan Forssell confirmed the agreement among the coalition parties and emphasized that the program would include strong oversight mechanisms, telling Swedish news agency TT that the government wants to minimize the risk of people exploiting the allowance by coming to Sweden solely to claim the payment.
As reported by the https://samnytt.se/tidoregeringen-erbjuder-familjer-600-000-kronor-i-atervandringsbidrag
news outlet, the proposal also includes a clause requiring full repayment of the grant if the recipient returns to Sweden, regardless of the time elapsed.
The remigration proposal is the latest in a series of measures aimed at reshaping Sweden’s migration and integration policies. It comes amid growing public concern over violent crime, particularly gang-related violence involving individuals with migration backgrounds. Reports have highlighted a surge in homicides and increasingly brazen criminal activity in Swedish cities. Sweden now https://samnytt.se/nu-har-sverige-50-procent-fler-mord-an-el-salvador
records 50 percent more homicides than El Salvador, a country once plagued by gang violence until a sweeping crackdown by President Nayib Bukele.
The Swedish government has framed its remigration policy as one response to what it describes as a decline in social cohesion and the failure of decades of integration efforts.
In March, the Swedish Ministry of Justice also introduced a proposal to tighten citizenship eligibility by raising the minimum income threshold for applicants. Under the draft, migrants applying for citizenship would need to demonstrate an annual income equivalent to three income base amounts, amounting to a gross monthly income of approximately SEK 20,000, or around €1,820.
“Being granted Swedish citizenship is something you should feel proud of. We are tightening the requirements to make it more meaningful and to ensure that those who become citizens have made an effort to become part of our society,” said Forssell at the time.
If approved, the new citizenship rules will take effect on June 1, 2026.
Despite the tough rhetoric from the ruling coalition, which is propped up with votes from the right-wing Sweden Democrats, skepticism persists about the government’s follow-through.
Remix News reported in March how Sweden granted citizenship to 60,000 foreign nationals in 2023, a number that has raised eyebrows among conservative commentators and immigration critics.
In an editorial last month, the newspaper Expressen warned that many of the new citizens had not sufficiently proven their identities, writing, “It is dangerous. Especially considering that citizenship cannot be revoked.”
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Fri, 04/25/2025 - 02:00
The Great 'Shortening'
The Great 'Shortening'
“No one can concentrate on anything for long these days. It’s completely ruining society.”
That’s quite a comment from my philosophically minded Uber driver, and it caught my attention. It had the ring of truth, something about which I’ve been thinking, but I was startled to hear this coming from a stranger. So I asked him to elaborate.
“It’s social media. Everyone is spending their days scrolling to get 3 and 4-second hits of instant gratification from content that has no meaning. We’ve lost patience for extended and meaningful narratives.”
You mean long movies?
“Not really. I mean big and important books, classics, well-constructed books, literary masterpieces put together with care that have stood the test of time.”
Intrigued by this, I thought further. It does have the ring of truth. To think that social media has done this to everyone in varying degrees is rather shocking. I do not exclude myself. The time I spend with long narratives that stretch over hundreds of pages and a reading time of many days has become ever less.
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I was thrilled when the news cycle opened up and included ever more voices and more real-time updates. It seems like a better world than the one into which I was born, wherein three newscasters read almost identical scripts about the same big events. Everyone trusted them. We moved on with our lives.
Now we are tempted to believe that constant refreshing of pages will make us more informed. We are going to find out the truth of public life now. We are no longer denied alternative voices and we are being given stunning looks into alternative explanations. This is great, and we naturally think it is an improvement.
Maybe it is. Surely it is. But the question is, at what cost? It is gravely tempting to spend whatever excess time we have obsessing about this or that thing with infinite options of sources, podcasts, videos, feeds, trending topics, and unrelating blasts of breaking news that amaze us and probably further tribalize us.
What is the cost? It is what we would otherwise be doing. Maybe that is investing in personal relationships and family. Maybe it is picking up a big physical unplugged book and reading from page one, thrilling in the gradual unfolding of a narrative. Maybe it is thinking about long-term financial planning and learning new ways to think about finance and implementing the lessons.
There can be no doubt that this goes on ever less and less. A 20-something friend says he knows of only two people in several years who have read an actual book. We all know that it is true. Empirical evidence on this varies, and the book market itself seems to be doing fine. Whether and to what extent people under the age of 30 actually have extended and disciplined time with mighty books is a real question. Surveys alone won’t give the answer.
What does it matter anyway? Again, I asked my Uber driver.
“It’s completely changing people. And the culture too. It’s all about now, not the future. It’s all about whatever stimulation we can realize in the moment without a thought about the long term.”
So what?
“The problem is that this outlook makes people selfish. It’s all about themselves. They don’t care about others. They don’t even notice others. People are nowhere near as aware of what is around them and how others respond to them. Social media is turning everyone into a sociopath.”
That’s a serious charge, but I’m hard-pressed to dispute it. Several experiences on my travels have confirmed this, not big things but small ways in which people are disinclined to give up their temporary comfort for something larger than themselves.
Maybe it is making the middle seat available to someone on a plane where seating is unassigned. The first thought these days is to look out for number one and plot to keep everyone away.
How often do people help strangers with luggage? Do they even notice? How about letting someone else order food or drink before you do? How about letting others who might miss a flight get in front of you in a line to deplane?
These are small points but it certainly seems true that we grant less social deference to each other than we once did. Indeed, we once took basic manners for granted. Now it seems like it is every man for himself under all circumstances.
Of course every generation decries the corruption of its time while looking back nostalgically on times past. It’s a bias that stems from selection: It is easier to remember the good and forget the bad the more time has marched forward, and easier to be more aware of the bad around you than dig deeper for the good.
That’s always true. And yet, the advent of social media, universal pocket media displays, personalized earbuds, and infinite content choices is all very much new. Nor are they going away. If they have changed us as a people and a culture, is it forever? Can we push back on it?
My driver’s thesis—I’ve come to take more seriously the observations of a common worker over an Ivy professor—causes me to consider all the other ways in which our time horizons have been shortened.
It’s documented thoroughly that appliances that once lasted a generation now break in two or three years. We buy phones and computers—very expensive items—with no sense that we are investing for the future. We know for sure that they will last two or three years before we get another.
Shoes are the same. Throw down $150 for a pair that looks great but in six months of wear, they seem ready for the bin. It’s this way with most clothing. Forget handing down a suit to offspring. It falls apart after a few wears. The sweater that looks great at the store has tears here and there by the end of the season.
Most clothing has become disposable. Most everything in the digital world is this way, and the more our real-world products become digitized, the less they have by way of longevity. Hardly anything is fixable anymore; you are almost always better off throwing out and buying new.
With inflation as it has been for years, we are encouraged to spend now rather than save because the saving isn’t being rewarded. At best, we break even so why not go into debt buying “experiences” rather than thinking of the future?
The economist Irving Fisher introduced the concept of time preference to explain interest rates. He said that a lower rate of time preference means that people are willing to sacrifice consumption today by saving. That drives down the interest rate by making more funds available for lending.
The opposite is true too: a higher rate of time preference—the burning desire to consume now rather than plan for the future—leads to lower savings and a depleted fund for capital expansion. That causes higher interest rates, all else equal.
It’s fascinating to follow the thinking of Murray Rothbard, who saw in this time preference theory a big explanation for the rise and fall of societies. More developed civilizations are a result of lower time preferences: investment, long-term thinking, frugality, and putting off today’s joys for a better tomorrow. Less developed societies do the opposite, all the way toward the state of nature in which everyone is just getting by for today.
We might be living through what we could call the Great Shortening. Our time preferences are higher. Our attention spans are shorter. Our horizons and outlooks on our place in society are characterized by getting what’s good for me now rather than thinking about what’s good for family, community, and society in the long run. Instant gratification is the defining mark of cultural life. You see it everywhere.
In some ways, what happened five years ago with lockdowns shattered community feeling and drove forward a kind of short-term egoism. That has been reinforced by technology that feeds us exactly what we want: a zip and zing now rather than edification and contemplation about the future. The less hopeful we are about the future, the more it makes sense to live only for the present.
Is this the Great Shortening? Maybe so, but there is no need to acquiesce. I recently took on a great book over three days, reading every sentence and word with rapt attention. The book in question is Laura Delano’s “https://www.amazon.com/dp/1984880489
,” and it is wonderful precisely because it features a very long story arc even though it is an autobiography.
My point is not to highlight this one work but to urge everyone to pick up any one book, preferably physical. Make it a classic of Victorian-era literature or one of the great books you knew you should read but never did. Dedicate three long days to it, and you will see exactly what I mean.
You might find yourself shocked at what it archives for your mind and spirit. You cannot fix the social order or culture, but you can care for yourself by saying: I won’t be manipulated by the systems that encourage me to think only about the here and now. All of us can do our part, in our own self-interest, to remember what it takes to build great minds and lives.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.
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Thu, 04/24/2025 - 23:50
Crowd Control: Nassau County Seeks To Make It Illegal To Stand Within 15 Feet Of Police During An Emergency
Crowd Control: Nassau County Seeks To Make It Illegal To Stand Within 15 Feet Of Police During An Emergency
Nassau County lawmakers want to make it illegal to stand within 15 feet of cops and other emergency workers — but critics say the “buffer zone” would be unconstitutional, https://nypost.com/2025/04/22/us-news/nassau-county-wants-to-make-it-illegal-to-stand-within-15-feet-of-cops/
.
Civilians who enter the “zone” for police, firefighters and other first responders during an emergency would be slapped with a misdemeanor and a $1,000 fine — with the possibility of up to a year behind bars, according to a new bill introduced by Republicans in the county Board of Legislators.
says that the goal of the bill aims to protect emergency responders from “threats, harassment, and physical interference” while on the job, according to lawmakers.
Legislator John Ferretti commented: “It is important that first responders are not obstructed during emergency situations and that our frontline heroes are allowed to engage in the lifesaving actions they are trained to perform without distractions.”
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Even Democrat Seth Koslow agreed: “Our cops and first responders shouldn’t have to fight crowds while they’re saving lives. This bill gives them the authority to keep chaos out and do their jobs without interference. It’s backed by both parties — because protecting those who protect us shouldn’t be political.”
New York law already penalizes interfering with first responders, but Nassau County's proposed 15-foot buffer zone would go further, barring even approaching them during emergencies — a move critics call ripe for abuse.
“Floating buffer zones offer yet another way for police to keep their activities hidden from public scrutiny,” said Justin Harrison of the NYCLU. “Laws that make it harder to monitor the police…violate the Constitution… and foster distrust in law enforcement.”
Similar laws in Louisiana, Arizona, and Indiana have been blocked by federal courts, the https://nypost.com/2025/04/22/us-news/nassau-county-wants-to-make-it-illegal-to-stand-within-15-feet-of-cops/
says. “We expect that Nassau’s law, if passed, will meet the same fate,” Harrison added.
https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden
Thu, 04/24/2025 - 23:25
US Can Produce Rare Earths If China Stops Exports - But There's A Catch
US Can Produce Rare Earths If China Stops Exports - But There's A Catch
(emphasis ours),
It could take up to five years to develop a domestic supply chain to supplant China’s global monopoly in processing rare earths into materials needed to produce everything from iPhones to F-35 fighter jets.
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While the United States has most of the 17 rare earth elements and 50 critical minerals underground, it has no industrial capacity to refine them into processed metals and magnets, according to Melissa “Mel” Sanderson, American Rare Earths board member and Critical Minerals Institute co-chair.
“Currently in the United States, we have zero magnet manufacturers,” Sanderson told The Epoch Times.
She said that’s why China imposed export restrictions on seven “heavy” rare earth elements on April 4 in https://www.theepochtimes.com/article/ccp-uses-typical-tactics-to-prolong-trade-war-with-us-experts-say-5842194
that boosted levies on China imports. After tit-for-tat tariff hikes, the United States is currently levying Chinese imports for 145 percent, with electronics exempted for now.
“I certainly hope, as the administration is working through this critical area—no pun intended, it’s a critical area—they realize there’s this vulnerability gap, a four to five year gap, no matter how you look at it, in terms of ramping up domestic production,” Sanderson said.
Trump’s April 2 order gives Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick 180 days to suggest how the federal government can help develop a “circular” domestic rare earth supply chain.
The president is also pondering an order allowing deep-sea mining and commercial stockpiling.
Whatever the administration does, with enough permit reform, deregulation, and public-private incentivizing, industry will respond, economist Antonio Graceffo told The Epoch Times.
“The short answer is if China bans the sale of rare earth minerals to the United States” permanently, “that’s a positive thing because it’s going to force the United States to find a solution,” he said.
An analyst who writes about U.S.–China trade relations for The Epoch Times, Graceffo said there are “tons of solutions” to building a domestic rare earth supply chain, including the ongoing negotiations with Ukraine.
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“Absolutely, we can overcome the problem,” he said. “In the long run, it’s going to be much better if China cuts us off. [Industry] will definitely find a way.”
Colorado School of Mines economics professor Ian Lange agrees. “I’m on the optimistic side,” he said.
Lange said there are substitute materials for the seven restricted rare earths, and some manufacturers are telling him they'll survive without them.
He questioned if China can sustain its rare earth export restrictions because American industries are their biggest market.
“We’ll see if this is a real or just another hoop to jump through,” Lange told The Epoch Times. “And we have been slowly building up the supply chain over the last couple years.
“We’re getting close to having something here in the United States.”
But “close” is a relative term when it comes to mining and refining, where proposed projects can routinely take 10 to 20 years to be approved.
‘Long Way Off’
Australian-based American Rare Earths is among a wave of start-ups in the United States engaged in rare earth and critical mineral mining.
It will also process dysprosium and terbium, two of the seven restricted “heavies,” by building a refinery near its Halleck Creek mine outside Wheatland, Wyoming. Dysprosium is used in magnets incorporated in motors and generators for wind turbines, electrical vehicles, and nuclear reactor control rods. Terbium compounds are used in electronics, semiconductors, and fluorescent lighting.
The company, which also has a mine in Arizona, secured a $7.1 million https://investornews.com/member_news/american-rare-earths-to-receive-a10-7-million-us7-1-million-of-grant-funding-from-state-of-wyoming/
from the United States Export-Import Bank to produce what it says is a 20-year supply of key rare earths, including dysprosium and terbium.
Also in Wyoming, Ramaco Resources is breaking ground on an estimated 1.5 billion-ton rare earth deposit and pilot processing plant at its Brook Mine, while Rare Element Resources has started “proprietary processing and separation operations” at its Bear Lodge demonstration plant in Upton.
Oklahoma-based USA Rare Earths, which is opening a “neo-magnet” factory this year, produced its first sample of dysprosium oxide from its Round Top, Texas, mine this year and processed it at its research plant in Wheat Ridge, Colorado.
Ucore Rare Metals is developing the Louisiana Strategic Metals Complex in Alexandria with $20 million in state incentives, and Energy Fuels, a uranium mining company, is processing monazite sands to extract rare earths at its White Mesa Mill in Utah.
Both are Canadian-owned corporations.
The two most prominent rare earth operators in the United States are Australia’s Lynas Rare Earths, the world’s largest rare earth developer outside China, and Las Vegas-based MP Materials Corp.
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Both are crucial in processing rare earths for the U.S. Department of Defense, which is midway through a five-year plan to build a “sustainable mine-to-magnet supply chain” to support its needs by 2027.
Lynas Rare Earth subsidiary Lynas USA washttps://wcsecure.weblink.com.au/pdf/LYC/02692868.pdf
$258 million in 2023 to build a 150-acre commercial separation plant in Seadrift, Texas, to process heavy rare earths such as dysprosium and terbium.
The Pentagon said in January it doubled its initial project request beyond military requirements to “strengthen supply chain resilience for … burgeoning high-tech industry as well as … national security needs.”
In 2022, the U.S. Department of Defense https://mpmaterials.com/articles/mp-materials-awarded-department-of-defense-heavy-rare-earth-processing-contract/
MP Materials $35 million to build a processing plant at Mountain Pass in California.
And, in 2024, it https://mpmaterials.com/articles/mp-materials-awarded-58-point-five-million-dollars-to-advance-us-rare-earth-magnet-manufacturing/
a $58.5-million federal tax credit to build the nation’s first fully integrated rare earth magnet manufacturing plant in Fort Worth, Texas, for GM electric vehicle motors.
In 2024, MP Materials achieved an all-time U.S. high output at Mountain Pass, delivering more than 45,000 metric tons of rare earth oxides and refined products.
The output included a U.S. record of 1,300 tons of neodymium-praseodymium oxide, key elements in “permanent magnets,” which retain their magnetic strength for decades.
“This milestone marks a major step forward in restoring a fully integrated rare earth magnet supply chain in the United States,” MP Materials CEO and founder James Litinsky said in a January statement.
“We have reached a significant turning point for MP and U.S. competitiveness in a vital sector.”
Yet, both Lynas Rare Earth and MP Materials produce more rare earth ore than they can process. To sustain operations, they must export much of what they excavate.
“MP is basically China’s largest offshore supplier” of rare earth ore, Critical Minerals Institute Executive Chair Jack Lifton said, noting China-based Shanghai Resources Industrial & Trading Co. bought 32,000 tons worth $350 million from MP Materials in 2024.
MP Materials did not return phone calls or email interview requests.
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Thu, 04/24/2025 - 23:00
https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/us-can-produce-rare-earths-if-china-stops-exports-theres-catch
First Tariff Shock Set To Hit Port Of Los Angeles, With Ripple Effects Across The Broader Economy
First Tariff Shock Set To Hit Port Of Los Angeles, With Ripple Effects Across The Broader Economy
Ocean freight transit times from Shanghai to Los Angeles typically range from 14 to 40 days, with faster services—such as CMA CGM's expedited routes—delivering containers in as little as three weeks. With 145% tariffs now applied to most Chinese imports, the full economic impact will likely emerge with a lag of about a month or more as reduced import volumes and supply chain disruptions begin to take effect. Early high-frequency indicators already suggest those disruptions are imminent.
Let's review the key trade war developments since President Trump, following "Liberation Day" on April 2, announced a tsunami of tariff hikes on Chinese imports to 145% on April 11.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/amazon-cancels-orders-walmart-pulls-forecast-tariffs-take-hold
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/chinese-sellers-amazon-panic-after-trumps-tariff-bazooka
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/chinese-plastics-factories-face-mass-closure-us-ethane-disappears
On Wednesday, new data from Port Optimizer, a tracking system for vessel operators, https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/west-coast-tipping-point-los-angeles-port-set-steep-drop-traffic
into the Port of Los Angeles are set to decline sharply beginning on Sunday.
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Adding to the conversation, FreightWaves CEO Craig Fuller posted on X that trucking activity at the LA Port, the largest container port in the Western Hemisphere, has just plunged ...
"Year-over-year trucking activity out of Los Angeles down 23%. It will likely drop to 50% in the coming weeks if there isn't trade war resolution," Fuller said.
Year-over-year trucking activity out of Los Angeles down 23%.
It will likely drop to 50% in the coming weeks if there isn't trade war resolution.
Massive layoffs coming to the West Coast trucking sector https://t.co/rLiow0xmoV
— Craig Fuller 🛩🚛🚂⚓️ (@FreightAlley) https://twitter.com/FreightAlley/status/1915241614798110946?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
He warned: "Massive layoffs coming to the West Coast trucking sector."
The incoming disruption at Port LA will soon result in sliding containerized flows from China, which will ripple through the Southern California economy.
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Here's how the disruption could unfold:
Plunging Container Volumes
Volume Drop: A decline in imports would slash throughput at the port, disrupting operations that rely on consistent traffic for profitability.
Revenue Hit: The Port of LA, which generates revenue through container handling fees, leases, and other port services, would face a significant decline in income.
Job Losses
Dockworkers & Terminal Staff: ILWU labor hours would be cut; possible layoffs or furloughs.
Truckers & Warehouse Workers: Major layoffs in the Inland Empire's massive logistics hub (Ontario, Riverside, etc.)—home to over 200 million square feet of warehousing.
Broader Economic Fallout (Southern California)
The logistics sector is the largest private employer in the Inland Empire. A large drop in volume could collapse parts of the warehouse economy.
Retail & Consumer Ripple Effects
Higher costs and shortages for imported goods would pressure retailers and consumers alike.
Port Diversions
Shippers would increasingly reroute to Mexican and Canadian ports, bypassing LA entirely.
Companies could shift sourcing to Mexico or other non-tariffed nations, reducing LA's role as a China-facing import hub.
While the first wave of disruptions is materializing at Port LA and could soon ripple across the Inland Empire and then the Heartland, across the Pacific, high tariffs on Chinese goods have already sent factories in the world's second-largest economy into a tailspin, as per a new https://www.ft.com/content/d5784258-4de3-44a1-94ae-6f763857b034#comments-anchor
report:
Wang Xin, head of the Shenzhen Cross-Border E-Commerce Association, an industry group representing more than 2,000 Chinese merchants, said many of them were "extremely anxious" and had told factories and suppliers to halt or delay deliveries. This had prompted some factories to suspend production for one to two weeks, she said.
. . .
It is unclear how widespread the factory suspensions are, said Han Dongfang, founder of China Labour Bulletin, which closely tracks Chinese manufacturing and labor. "The rearrangement of China's manufacturing sector will be a long-term process and workers will be sacrificed," he said.
What's telling is that the Trump administration is bracing for impact and has likely viewed this port data as new signs emerge of possible de-escalation of the trade war with China.
The White House has put itself and the country in a bad situation but doesn’t realize it yet.
Around April 10th China to USA trade shut down.
It takes ~30 days for containers to go from China to LA.
45 to Houston by sea, 45 to Chicago by train.
55 to New York by sea.
That… https://t.co/8vnGDMWCpt
— molson 🧠⚙️ (@Molson_Hart) https://twitter.com/Molson_Hart/status/1915248938753392642?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
On Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Bessent told investors at a closed-door meeting: "No one thinks the current status quo is sustainable, at 145% and 125%, so I would posit that over the very near future, there will be a de-escalation. We have an embargo now on both sides."
Bessent stated earlier this week that a trade deal https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/china-dismisses-reports-us-trade-progress-fake-news-demands-removal-unilateral-tariffs
.
President Trump has noted on several occasions that there will be "little disturbance" and "short-term interruption" when the tariffs kick in.
Trump says there will be 'a little disturbance' when tariffs kick in: 'We're OK with that, it won't be much' https://t.co/rkGcItbCL5
— New York Post (@nypost) https://twitter.com/nypost/status/1897137779672248708?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
“There will be a short term interruption… I don’t think it’s going to be big.” “There will be disruption”... Is President Trump preparing us for the Mass Start Awakening? https://t.co/UfQX2ehiFG
— VAL THOR (@CMDRVALTHOR) https://twitter.com/CMDRVALTHOR/status/1898402961803354375?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
The adjustment period seems imminent. Even before it fully arrives, Americans are already panic-searching for "https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/americans-are-searching-usa-products-never
."
It's time to break the nation's addiction to cheap Chinese goods and restore critical supply chains—an essential step to https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/goldmans-china-tech-tour-underscores-one-message-america-must-reclaim-these-supply
. Without these supply chains to produce drones, smartphones, chips, electric vehicles, and humanoid robots (all under similar ecosystems of production), it will be impossible to compete with China in the decades ahead. The adjustment period nears.
https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden
Thu, 04/24/2025 - 22:35
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/it-begins-brace-first-wave-tariff-shock-port-los-angeles
Global Silence As HTS & Allies Take Alawite Women As Sex Slaves In Syria
Global Silence As HTS & Allies Take Alawite Women As Sex Slaves In Syria
https://thecradle.co/articles-id/30288
Since December, when the former Al-Qaeda affiliate, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), toppled the government of Bashar al-Assad, Syria has witnessed a chilling wave of mysterious https://thecradle.co/articles/abductions-extra-judicial-killings-mount-in-syria-under-hts-rule
, predominantly from the Alawite community.
Evidence continues to emerge that these women, primarily from the Alawite religious sect, have been abducted and taken to live as https://x.com/AlawiteMediaLab/status/1908843860987371556
in Idlib governorate, the traditional HTS stronghold, by armed factions affiliated with the new Syrian government.
Shockingly, the mass kidnapping and enslavement of Alawite women now being carried out by HTS-affiliated factions mirrors the enslavement of the thousands of Yezidi women by ISIS during the https://thecradle.co/articles/masoud-barzani-the-butcher-of-sinjar
in Sinjar, Iraq.
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The activist who spoke out
carried out by government-affiliated factions and security forces against Alawites in the country's coastal areas on March 7.
“During my last visit to Idlib, I was at a place with my brother when I saw a man I knew with a woman I had never met before,” Hiba explained.
“This man had been married multiple times before and is believed to currently have three wives. What caught my attention was the woman’s appearance – specifically, it was clear she didn’t know how to wear a hijab properly, and her scarf was draped haphazardly.”
After inquiring further, Ezzedeen learned that the woman was from the coastal areas where the March 7 massacres, in which over 1,600 Alawite civilians were killed, took place. “This man had brought her to the village and married her, with no further details available. No one knew what had happened to her or how she got there, and naturally, the young woman was too afraid to speak,” Ezzedeen added.
Because the situation was so strange and alarming to her, she began asking everyone she knew, “rebels, factions, human rights activists,” about the abduction of Alawite women from the coast. “Unfortunately, many confirmed that this had indeed happened, and not just by one faction. Based on what friends said, accusations point to factions of the National Army and some foreign fighters, with varying motives,” she reported.
Syria's new HTS-led security forces have incorporated armed extremist groups, including Uyghurs from the Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP) and Syrian Turkmen from factions of the Turkish-intelligence-backed Syrian National Army (SNA), into their ranks since coming to power in Damascus.
Various SNA commanders and https://thecradle.co/articles-id/28117
have been appointed to top positions in the Syrian Ministry of Defense.
While the HTS-dominated General Security units participated in the March 7 massacres in many areas, former SNA and foreign fighter factions are believed to have led the campaign. Militants went door to door in Alawite villages and neighborhoods, executing all military-aged men they could find, looting homes, and at times killing women, children, and the elderly.
Ezzedeen concluded her post by stating, “This is a serious issue that cannot be ignored. The government must immediately reveal the fate of these women and release them.”
Rather than investigate the issue and seek to rescue the captive women, the HTS-appointed governor of Idlib https://x.com/Ostensiblay/status/1913948692203123170
an order for Ezzedeen's arrest, claiming she had “insulted the hijab.”
Ezzedeen's courageous revelation shed light on the fate of many young women from minority communities who had mysteriously disappeared in recent months, after self-appointed Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa and HTS toppled Assad and took power in Damascus.
A pattern of abductions
In one of the earliest cases, a young Druze woman from the Damascus suburb of Jaramana, Karolis Nahlah, https://x.com/WVanwagenen/status/1886557528110116916
on the morning of February 2, 2024, while on her way to university in the Mezzeh area. The case was strange because no ransom was demanded, and nothing was heard of her again.
Over time, information began to trickle out that young women like Karolis were being kidnapped and taken to Idlib as slaves, as Hiba Ezzedeen finally confirmed.
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Above: Screenshot of a Facebook post inquiring about the whereabouts of the missing Karolis Nahla. The caption reads: “Karolis Nahla has been missing since yesterday. She is a second year university student studying French Literature. She had class at 9:00 am. At 12:00 pm we lost contact with her. Please, if anybody knows anything about her or has seen her, inform us.”
On March 21, Bushra Yassin Mufarraj, an Alawite mother of two, went missing from the bus station in Jableh. Her husband later posted a video appeal stating she had been abducted and taken to Idlib. “My wife was taken captive in Idlib. Is there anything more cruel that could happen to a man in the world? That his wife and the mother of his children be in such circumstances,” he stated in a video appeal for help https://www.facebook.com/watch/?mibextid=6AJuK9&v=636906315719504
on social media 10 days later.
Bushra's disappearance was followed by a wave of kidnappings in the following days and weeks. The Kurdish Jinha Agency https://jinhaagency.com/en/actual/100-people-kidnapped-in-syria-s-coastal-regions-in-2-days-36773
on 25 March, citing local reports, that more than 100 people were kidnapped by armed groups in Syria’s coastal regions over the previous 48 hours, including many women.
On April 5, 21-year-old Katia Jihad Qarqat went https://x.com/cynthia0_019/status/1909660144373297229
The last contact with her was at 9:20 am near a shop at the Bahra circle in Jdeidat Artouz in the Damascus countryside. Her family pleaded that anyone who had seen or had any information about her should contact them.
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Above: A screenshot of a social media post inquiring about the whereabouts of the missing Katia Jihad Qarqat. The caption reads: "A girl has gone missing in the Damascus countryside. The young woman, Katia, was last seen yesterday Friday, at 9:20 AM near a shop at the Bahra circle in Jdeidat Artouz. She is from the village of Hina and is a third-year university student. Anyone who has seen her or has any information is kindly asked to contact the following number 0994479206."
On April 8, 17-year-old Sima Suleiman Hasno went https://x.com/CoastSyrianMoni/status/1911194886688161980
at 11:00 am after leaving her school in the village of Qardaha in the Latakia countryside. Sima was released four days later in Damascus, where she was handed over to her aunt by members of the HTS-led Syrian government. Surveillance footage from shops near the abduction site circulated widely on social media, sparking widespread outrage.
On April 11, at 4:00 pm, contact was lost with 22-year-old Raneem Ghazi Zarifa in the Hama countryside, in the city of Masyaf. “We are extremely worried about her. We ask that anyone with information about her, no matter how small, please contact us immediately,” her family https://x.com/Sy_intelligence/status/1912630830947541091
in a social media post.
On April 14, Batoul Arif Hassan, a young married woman with a three-year-old child from Safita, https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=122124625976703505&set=a.122104988420703505
after visiting family in the village of Bahouzi. Contact was lost with her around 4:00 pm as she was traveling in a public minibus on the Homs–Safita Road. Her family asked in a social media post for anyone with information about her whereabouts to contact her brother by phone.
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On the morning of April 16, Aya Talal Qassem, 23, was https://x.com/CoastSyrianMoni/status/1912833599046307874
after leaving her home in the coastal city of Tartous. Three days later, Aya's kidnapper freed her and sent her to Tartous on the Homs highway, only for the HTS-led General Prosecution Service to detain her.
Aya's mother https://www.facebook.com/reel/1500624620911721
a video to social media explaining that her family was not allowed to be with her in detention and that her father was arrested when he insisted on seeing her. The mother said that the General Prosecution Service tried to force Aya to give testimony, saying that she was not kidnapped but had instead run away with a lover. The mother added that she was pressured to tell such a story despite the presence of bleeding cuts and wounds on her body.
with her two daughters, 5-year-old Naya Maher Qaidban and 3-year-old Masa Maher Qaidban.
Nour and her daughters left their home in the village of Al-Mashrafa in rural Homs at noon, heading toward a neighbor’s house. Witnesses saw a masked group affiliated with the HTS-led General Security abduct them, placing them in a vehicle marked with the group’s emblem before fleeing.
Echoes of Sinjar
By April 17, Iraqi media outlet https://daraj.media/%D9%85%D9%86-%D9%8A%D8%AE%D8%B7%D9%81-%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%88%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%B3%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D9%88%D8%B6%D8%AD-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%86%D9%87%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%9F/
reported on ten confirmed kidnappings of Alawite women from the coastal regions. According to one survivor, pseudonym Rahab, she was abducted in broad daylight and held in a locked room with another woman.
One woman who spoke to Al-Daraj under the pseudonym Rahab was released after the kidnappers allegedly feared a raid by General Security. She said she was kidnapped in broad daylight and held in a room with another woman, stating:
“They tortured and beat us. We weren't allowed to speak to each other, but I heard the kidnappers' accents. One had a foreign accent and the other a local Idlib accent. I knew this because they were cursing us because we were Alawites.”
The other woman, held with her, pseudonym Basma, remains in captivity. She was forced to call her family to tell them she was “fine” and to assure them that “they should not publish anything” about her abduction.
Al-Daraj also documented the case of an 18-year-old girl who was also kidnapped in broad daylight, from the countryside of a coastal city in Syria. Her family later received a text message warning them to remain silent about her abduction or else she would be sent back dead. The girl later sent the family a voice recording from a phone number registered in the Ivory Coast, saying she was fine and unsure where she had been taken.
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The Iraqi media outlet compared these cases to the ISIS genocide of Yezidis in Sinjar. Over 6,400 Yezidis were enslaved by ISIS in 2014. Thousands were trafficked into Syria and Turkiye, sold as domestic or sex slaves, or trained for battle. Many remain missing.
HTS: The ideological continuity of ISIS
That Alawite women are now appearing in Idlib is unsurprising given HTS’s ideological lineage. HTS, which seized Idlib in 2015 with https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/ambassador-ford-lied-about-giving-tow-missiles-to-al-qaeda-in-syria/
, who was dispatched to Syria in 2011 by the late “caliph” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to establish the Nusra Front, forerunner to HTS.
In 2014, Syria analyst Sam Heller therefore https://www.rferl.org/a/black-flag-syria-islamic-state-al-qaeda-sectarianism-alawites/27788931.html
Nusra’s clerics as promoting “toxic – even genocidal – sectarianism," towards Alawites, based on the teachings of the medieval Islamic scholar Ibn Taymiyyah.
Though HTS and ISIS clashed in 2014, their ties endured. When Baghdadi was killed in 2019, he was hiding in Barisha, just outside HTS-held Sarmada. At the time, numerous enslaved Yezidis were also in Idlib.
this, quoting Abdullah Shrem, a Yezidi rescuer, and Alexander Hug of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), who said missing persons were often held “in areas beyond government control.”
In 2019, Ali Hussein, a Yezidi from Dohuk, https://www.npr.org/2019/03/14/703287508/yazidis-tell-their-stories-about-life-under-isis
NPR journalist Jane Arraf of his attempt to purchase the freedom of an 11-year-old Yezidi girl who had been abducted by ISIS but was “sold to an emir of an Al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria – Jabhat al-Nusra [Nusra Front] – [and] that she's no longer a virgin.”
“I told you $45,000 from the beginning. I know what they pay in Raqqa. I told you, in Turkiye, they would pay $60,000 or $70,000 and take out the girl's organs. But I don't want to do that,” the ISIS contact threatened during the negotiation.
the rescue of a young Yezidi boy, Rojin, who had been captured and enslaved by ISIS along with his brother in 2014. At 13 years old, Rojin was taken to the Kurdish-run Al-Hol camp in eastern Syria. He was held there alongside thousands of ISIS families and supporters after the organization's final defeat in the Syrian border town of Baghouz in 2019.
Some of the women kidnapped from the coast of https://twitter.com/hashtag/Syria?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
— Joshua Landis (@joshua_landis) https://twitter.com/joshua_landis/status/1914364526461345900?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
The Saudi ISIS fighter who had purchased Rojin then arranged for him to be smuggled from Al-Hol to Idlib. He was freed five years later, in November 2024, as HTS was preparing its lightning assault on Aleppo.
Reuters reported that in another case, a 21-year-old Yezidi named Adnan Zandenan received a Facebook message from a younger brother he presumed was dead, but who also had been trafficked to Idlib.
“My hands were trembling. I thought one of my friends was messing with me,” Zandenan recalled. However, Zandenan's euphoria quickly turned to despair when his brother, now 18 years old and thoroughly brainwashed by extremist Salafi ideology, refused to leave Idlib and return to the Yezidi community in Sinjar.
The repackaged caliphate
In December 2024, just one day after Julani's HTS entered Damascus to topple Assad, Rudaw https://manage.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/09122024
that a 29-year-old Yezidi woman had been rescued from slavery in Idlib. The Iraqi Kurdish outlet stated that many Yezidi women have been rescued from the Kurdish-run Al-Hol camp.
However, others “have been found in areas of Syria controlled by rebels [HTS] or Turkish-backed armed groups [SNA], and some have been located in third countries,” it added.
In the days following Assad’s fall, jubilant crowds took to city squares, chanting in support of Julani, now rebranded as Ahmad al-Sharaa. Yet as western diplomats scrambled to meet the new ruler, the meaning of his “freedom” quickly became clear. The abductions of Alawite women – mirroring the Yezidi tragedy –signaled that Julani had simply repackaged the ISIS model.
Under the guise of liberation, a brutal system of https://thecradle.co/articles-id/30167
of the same pattern that surrounded the initial days of the Yezidi genocide: disbelief, dismissal, and derision – until the truth proved far worse.
“No one believed it could be happening … Even Western analysts and journalists did not believe our claims,” Barber said. “The reality was even worse than what we were claiming.”
The victims’ silence is not voluntary – it is coerced. And as this campaign of gendered terror continues, the question remains: How long will the world avert its gaze?
https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden
Thu, 04/24/2025 - 22:10
Affordable, Reliable, Clean Scorecard: Natural Gas Is Tops, Wind And Solar Are The Worst
Affordable, Reliable, Clean Scorecard: Natural Gas Is Tops, Wind And Solar Are The Worst
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Policymakers on both sides of the political aisle increasingly advocate for affordable, reliable, and clean energy. This is for good reason – modern society requires energy that is affordable and available on demand. Environmental concerns are also very important. Together, affordability, reliability, and cleanliness form the three pillars of ideal energy policy.
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Two new analyses evaluate competing electrical power sources and produce an affordable, reliable, and clean scorecard. The two analyses – one published by https://www.mackinac.org/s2024-09
– independently reach near-identical findings.
Both analyses find natural gas is the most affordable, reliable, and clean electrical power source. Not far behind natural gas are nuclear, hydro, and coal. Lagging at the bottom of the affordability scorecard are wind and solar power.
Natural gas is easily the lowest-cost electrical power source, with coal the second-most affordable. Natural gas also scores very high for reliable high-volume power production, as do nuclear and coal.
Despite some claims that wind and solar are less expensive than conventional power, the opposite is true. Wind and solar benefit from far more subsidies than other power sources, which merely shift their high costs to taxpayers rather than directly to customers’ electricity bills. Also, the intermittent and often unpredictable nature of wind and solar power impose substantial costs on the grid, requiring other power sources to frequently ramp up and down – quite inefficiently – to cover for the variability of wind and solar. Finally, wind turbines and solar panels must often be built far from population centers, requiring extensive and expensive networks of transmission wires to deliver power to customers.
Taking all the above factors into account, a peer-reviewed analysis of full-system levelized costs of competing power sources shows wind power is seven times more expensive than natural gas power and solar power is 10 times more expensive. That explains why most of the world – and nearly all the developing world – is building natural gas, coal, and nuclear power plants rather than wind and solar power facilities.
Perhaps the most noteworthy findings of the two independent analyses are the poor environmental performance of wind and solar power. Wind and solar, like hydro and nuclear, are emissions-free. However, wind and solar score quite poorly regarding many other important environmental factors. Wind and solar require disrupting and developing far more land and ecosystems than other power sources. Wind and solar generation directly kill far more animals than other power sources, including many protected and endangered species. The mining of toxic and rare earth minerals for wind turbines and solar panels is enormously and uniquely harmful to water and soil health.
Earlier this month, President Trump signed an executive order noting the affordability and abundance of coal and removing obstacles to coal production and utilization. The two new analyses support the Trump administration’s energy policies, which emphasizes increased domestic production of oil, natural gas, and coal. At the same time, the two analyses support similar action to remove obstacles to nuclear power, hydro power, and – especially – natural gas.
Don’t expect the big utilities to necessarily support natural gas and other affordable, reliable, and clean power sources. Utilities typically operate under a government-protected monopoly such that they don’t need to produce affordable power to gain an edge over competitors. Also, governments typically guarantee utilities approximately 10% profit on so-called green power projects and expenditures. As a result, utilities typically lobby for the most expensive power sources to boost their total profit.
For consumers and grid integrity, however, natural gas is the gold standard for affordable, reliable, and clean electricity generation. Nuclear, hydro, and coal are not too far behind.
James Taylor (JTaylor@heartland.org) is President of The Heartland Institute.
https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden
Thu, 04/24/2025 - 21:20
Liberal Media Ditching "Food Deserts" Term For Far More Inflammatory-Sounding "Food Apartheid"
Liberal Media Ditching "Food Deserts" Term For Far More Inflammatory-Sounding "Food Apartheid"
Having worn out the use of 'Hitler' over the last decade, the liberal media is searching for its next sensationalist descriptor for an otherwise innocuous "injustice" deserving of unlimited taxpayer dollars.
This go-round, the media is replacing their loaded "food desert" term with "food apartheid". Because, hey, when there isn't a World War II or full blown civil rights style crisis on the media's hands to all them to argue their ideologies...why not just invent one?
"The Associated Press periodically tweaks its style guide—often to make its left‑wing activism more subtle. Progressive activists do the same, inventing controversies out of thin air. Where we once spoke of “food deserts,” the Radical Left now insists on “food apartheid”—and expects us to pretend this contrived concept is happening in Seattle," https://mynorthwest.com/ktth/ktth-opinion/food-apartheid-seattle-media/4078431
.
Rantz https://mynorthwest.com/ktth/ktth-opinion/food-apartheid-seattle-media/4078431
in an article out this morning that Seattle Times columnist Naomi Ishisaka pushes the idea that racism is behind the lack of quality grocery stores in areas like south Seattle compared to whiter neighborhoods.
?itok=8DtGRooa
“While ‘food desert’ might lead people to think there’s something inevitable... ‘food apartheid’ argues that these inequities are the result of intentional choices, and can be changed,” she writes.
True to her unwavering BLM alignment, Ishisaka sees racism in every disparity. Fewer stores in Black neighborhoods? “These inequities... contribute to health disparities that fall along racial and socio-economic lines,” she claims—suggesting a broad, selective conspiracy that oddly excludes Asians and poor whites.
Naomi Ishisaka blames “policies such as redlining and urban renewal” for underinvestment in Black neighborhoods—but sidesteps the more obvious factor: crime.
She even concedes that near her Rainier Beach home, “we have two Safeways, the closest of which has been the site of numerous incidents of gun violence,” unwittingly highlighting the real deterrent.
Grocery stores operate on thin margins and avoid areas where safety is a liability. That basic economic reality seems lost on Ishisaka, blinded by ideology.
The irony is rich: the same activists crying “food apartheid” also chant “ACAB,” oppose policing, and undermine public safety—then wonder why businesses won’t invest, Rantz https://mynorthwest.com/ktth/ktth-opinion/food-apartheid-seattle-media/4078431
.
https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden
Thu, 04/24/2025 - 20:05
Zeldin Demands Mexico Act On Cross-Border Sewage
Zeldin Demands Mexico Act On Cross-Border Sewage
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Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin’s trip Tuesday to this scenic family-friendly coastal tourist destination was all business and at times quite unpleasant, considering the noxious fumes he was there to discuss.
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Zeldin visited this border city on Earth Day to try to put an end to a decades-long environmental catastrophe: Billions of gallons of sewage and industrial chemicals from Mexico have flowed into the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, closing local beaches and sickening U.S. Navy SEALs who train in the water on nearby beaches.
The cross-border pollution has been going on for decades with Congress addressing the disgusting effluence piece-meal, throwing more than $653 million at the problem over the last five years alone even as the contaminant levels surged.
The Tijuana River runs close to the coast in Mexico then flows into California, through Navy-owned land, and dumps into the ocean. In recent years, Tijuana’s population and industry have boomed, overwhelming its aging wastewater treatment plants and pumping stations and increasing the levels of toxins, including industrial chemicals, bacteria, and trash, in the river and nearby coastal waters. Scientists and researchers say the sewage doesn’t only contaminate the water – it also vaporizes into the air and they have detected high levels of harmful gases in the area.
Enter President Trump, who with his “drill-baby-drill” refrain may seem an unlikely environmental hero. But the president has been intensely focused on the border and has demanded that Mexico help stop the flow of illegal immigrants, drugs, and now human waste into U.S. territory and waters. During Trump’s first term, he usually either touted progress on his “big, beautiful border wall” or railed against Democrats efforts to defund it – without mentioning the sewage pouring into California coastal zones.
Now the problem is “top of mind” for Trump, Zeldin said.
Zeldin, a former Congressman from New York who ran an unsuccessful campaign for governor in 2022, spent his day discussing various options to expedite solutions. He met the previous evening with his Mexican environmental counterparts and left the meeting hopeful about their commitment, but he also didn’t mince words.
“I’m a New Yorker, and if I say this in a way that offends people from Southern California, I’m sorry. But I know my counterparts in Mexico are listening,” Zeldin told reporters after a forum with a bipartisan group of congressman and local leaders. “What’s going on inside of the American who just cares about having it resolved – they don’t give a shit about how it gets done, as long as this crisis is over.”
Earlier in the day, while touring a U.S. plant that treats sewage as a secondary facility to one in Mexico, Darrell Issa, longtime San Diego-area GOP congressman, recounted an alarming story. He recalled one Border Patrol agent telling him the Tijuana River water is so toxic that his boots started disintegrating after stepping into it while doing his job.
Rep. Mike Levin, a Democrat representing northern San Diego County, later told reporters that his wife’s nephew who had trained as a SEAL near the border had been diagnosed with cancer in his 20s. The family can’t prove that his training in the deeply polluted water caused the cancer, but they have their suspicions. Other Navy vets have recently started dubbing the sewage outflows, located roughly one mile from their training waters, the “next Camp Lejeune.”
The Navy is considering relocating its Coronado training site for SEAL candidates after documenting 1,168 cases of acute gastrointestinal illnesses of its recruits from 2019 to 2023. The pollution has sickened swimmers, surfers, lifeguards, and border patrol agents, closing California beaches near the border more often than they’ve been open over the last four years.
Zeldin, who took a helicopter tour of the polluted areas and met with Navy officials Tuesday, said American patience has run out. In the coming days, he will deliver Mexico a to-do list to resolve the environmental crisis and plans to issue a joint statement outlining concrete steps, which must happen “as fast as humanly possible.”
The actions must be “aggressively pursued with extreme urgency,” he stated.
During the tour of the U.S. wastewater treatment center, lawmakers and local officials explained that expanding that facility alone will only take care of roughly half the problem. The center can treat only a limited amount of raw sewage before releasing it directly into the ocean. Meanwhile, Mexican factories and people are dumping chemicals and trash into the Tijuana River itself.
The Mexican government, Zeldin said, must clean up the river and prevent its citizens from re-contaminating it. In 2022, Mexico committed $88 million to help remediate the pollution but still needs to designate the funds to several ongoing wastewater treatment projects and upgrades. One of those projects must be installing floodgates to collect trash in Tijuana, Zeldin said.
“They cannot view this as a U.S. problem just because their contamination reached U.S. soil,” he said. “We need Mexico to not just commit to all the projects that will stop the flow, but in order to actually finish this project, they’re going to [have to] commit to that final cleanup.”
The meetings on the issue so far have been productive, Zeldin stressed, noting that the relatively new administration of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has appeared receptive to working out a “strong collaborative relationship” and a course of action.
Zeldin, however, did not outline any enforcement actions and said he has not discussed the possibility of making Mexico’s action on the sewage problem a condition to a pending agreement to lift tariffs.
“I haven’t had that conversation with anyone – that’s not something that I’ve heard,” he told RealClearPolitics. “But I wouldn’t read into that one way or the other.”
San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond, a Republican challenging Levin for his congressional seat, has been the one sounding the alarm since the first days of the Trump administration. During Tuesday’s meeting with Zeldin and other lawmakers, Desmond suggested a far simpler solution than the complex set of wastewater upgrades and expansions on both sides of the border under consideration.
“I’m happy to support the plant there, but – I’ll go out on a limb – I think we need to dam up the Tijuana River,” he said in the meeting, a video of which a reporter posted on X.com afterward. “That’s what everything’s being thrown into – mattresses, shopping carts, tires, diapers – everything that’s coming across the border.”
Desmond also expressed optimism that “real, tangible solutions” are on the way, but said he plans to continue keeping the pressure on Mexico.
“I’m not letting up until we see results,” he said after the meeting. “Holding Mexico accountable is no longer optional – it’s urgent. Our beaches, our health, and our military demand it.”
Zeldin didn’t comment on Desmond’s proposal to dam the river, which would no doubt anger environmentalists who have complained for decades that the pollutants are harming the entire Tijuana Valley estuary, leading to mass deaths of its fish and other marine life and a reduction in biodiversity.
Doing so would also violate numerous environmental regulations. The estuary is one of just 30 that remain protected in North America and is recognized by the United Nations as coastal wetlands in need of these safeguards. Even so, Mexican factories and others continue to violate the protections and disregard regulations.
The bilateral solution will likely be complex, Zeldin said, but the status quo is unacceptable. The administrator then predicted that the U.S. and Mexican government would be celebrating putting the crisis in the “rearview mirror” by Earth Day 2026.
“There’s no way that we are going to stand before the people of California and ask them to have more patience and just bear with all of us as we go through the next 10 or 20 or 30 years of being stuck in 12 feet of raw sewage and not getting anywhere,” he pledged.
As to why Trump is making the issue a priority now and why no other president, Democrat or Republican, over the last 25 years has successfully tackled it, Zeldin demurred.
“Look, I have plenty of thoughts as to missed opportunities in the past,” he told RCP. “But I’m not here to look backwards right now. I’m just looking forward.”
Susan Crabtree is RealClearPolitics' national political correspondent.
https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden
Thu, 04/24/2025 - 19:40
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/zeldin-demands-mexico-act-cross-border-sewage
Wash. State Instructor And PhD Student Arrested After Assaulting Student Wearing MAGA Hat
Wash. State Instructor And PhD Student Arrested After Assaulting Student Wearing MAGA Hat
A Washington State University instructor and PhD student, Patrick Mahoney, was arrested after allegedly assaulting a student wearing a red “Take America Back” Trump 2024 hat, according to a police report obtained by The Jason Rantz Show on https://mynorthwest.com/ktth/wsu-instructor-trump-hat/4076693
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The victim, Jay Sani, said Mahoney grabbed his hat and threw it, then, along with another suspect, Gerald Hoff, “grabbed Sani and took him to the ground.”
The police report says: “Once on the ground, Mahoney grabbed Sani’s head and slammed it into the ground. Sani then moved his hands to approximately shoulder height and said something to the effect of he put his hands up to not make the fight worse.
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Mahoney said to the officer who contacted him: “You know, you’re f**king wearing that hat, you wanted someone to f**king look at it, right?”
“I asked Mahoney what happened tonight. Mahoney said that he saw ‘ol’ boy’ walking around. Mahoney did not name Sani by name but said ‘I’ve seen this guy, f**king, on campus before. I know he’s like f**king Right Wing dude. He’s got a f**king, like, Make America Great Again hat.'”
According to police, Mahoney referred to Sani as “ol’ boy” and admitted to grabbing the hat, saying, “You know, you’re fking wearing that hat, you wanted someone to fking look at it, right?” He claimed Sani “body checked” him, prompting Mahoney to tackle and punch him “to Sani’s jaw.”
Both Mahoney and Gerald Hoff were arrested for assault, https://mynorthwest.com/ktth/wsu-instructor-trump-hat/4076693
to 770 KTTH. “WSU suspended and removed Mahoney from all classes he previously taught,” The Daily Evergreen reported.
EXCLUSIVE: Frontlines reporter https://twitter.com/choeshow?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
has obtained surveillance footage showing Washington State University (WSU) PhD student instructor Patrick Mahoney and WSU employee Gerald Hoff attacking engineering student Jay Sani.
Sani claims that Mahoney and Hoff assaulted him… https://t.co/AhNae3FDMT
— FRONTLINES (@FrontlinesTPUSA) https://twitter.com/FrontlinesTPUSA/status/1912151428161999160?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Mahoney, described as a far-left activist, was suspended and removed from teaching duties. He has a history of union involvement and pro-Palestinian activism, including calls for a Gaza ceasefire.
The https://mynorthwest.com/ktth/wsu-instructor-trump-hat/4076693
that Sani, who says he was bruised, condemned “how toxic the left has gotten.” In a Facebook post, he wrote, “To make it clear, I hate to say this, but i’m [sic] brown, but forget it. I’m an engineering student that wants to get the degree, and move on. So what if I like someone that you don’t like. We have the 1st amendment, and its not okay that just because you don’t like that person, I should be attacked for it. You had a chance in November to oust him, but you didn’t.”
https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden
Thu, 04/24/2025 - 19:15
Trump Says Baby Bonus For Moms "Sounds Like A Good Idea"
Trump Says Baby Bonus For Moms "Sounds Like A Good Idea"
President Donald Trump has signaled a willingness to issue a financial bonus to mothers when they give birth.
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The president was asked by reporters on Tuesday whether he might consider “some kind of bonus” to women for having a child. The idea was first reported by The New York Times, which cited anonymous sources who said administration officials are looking into a financial reward to increase the U.S. birth rate.
“Sounds like a good idea to me,” Trump said in response before quickly moving on to another question. The president did not go into any other specifics about the alleged proposal.
Other administration officials have suggested they favor policies aimed at increasing U.S. birth rates amid decades of decline.
Earlier this year, Vice President JD Vance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib_FvbIjgio
during his first public speaking event as vice president that he wanted “more babies” being born in the United States, adding that American “society has failed to recognize the obligation that one generation has to another as a core part of living in a society.”
“We failed a generation not only by permitting a culture of abortion on demand, but also by neglecting to help young parents achieve the ingredients they need to lead a happy and meaningful life,” he said.
Special government employee Elon Musk, who heads the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has repeatedly said that declining birth rates in the West could lead to a collapse of civilization.
“There’s a lot of things that I worry about. The birth rate is very low in almost every country and unless that changes, civilization will disappear. America had the lowest birth rate ever. That was last year. Humanity is dying,” the Tesla CEO https://x.com/cb_doge/status/1905756229567467894
Fox News late last month.
In another warning, Musk wrote on Tuesday that “low birth rates will end civilization” in a https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1914640691633717284
showing a decline.
Births in the United States rose slightly in 2024.
Just more than 3.6 million births were reported for 2024, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention preliminary data released in March. That’s 22,250 more than the final tally of 2023 U.S. births, which was released on Tuesday.
However, the United States has seen an overall decline in fertility since the 1960s.
In 2023, the country hit a record low of 54.5 births per 1,000 females between the ages of 15 and 44, or a 3 percent drop from 2022’s figures, https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db507.htm
to the CDC.
Meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Office said in January that it lowered its projections for the U.S. population in 30 years to 372 million residents, a 2.8 percent drop from last year, citing declining birth rates and less expected immigration.
The budget office last year had projected 383 million people living in the United States in 30 years.
The United States had an estimated 341 million residents on New Year’s Day and is expected to grow to 350 million people by year’s end.
https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden
Thu, 04/24/2025 - 18:50
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/trump-says-baby-bonus-moms-sounds-good-idea
'Cuomo Lied, New Yorkers Died!' - Protesters Storm Stage At Mayor Candidate Forum
'Cuomo Lied, New Yorkers Died!' - Protesters Storm Stage At Mayor Candidate Forum
As he continues his bid for the New York City mayor's office, scandal-plagued former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo was accosted by storm-staging protesters at a candidate forum on Wednesday evening. The young throng hurled profane insults at him, and condemned him for his deadly and dishonest mishandling of the Covid pandemic. Afterward, the organizer of the "Black Agenda for NYC" forum said it was a particular "disgrace" that some of the disrupters were white people.
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Cuomo was in mid-sentence on the stage at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn when the group of perhaps 10 protesters stormed the stage, some shouting "Fuck you, Cuomo!" They tried but failed to unfurl a long banner -- as NYPD officers wearing "Community Affairs" shirts quickly moved to intercept them.
It appears at least one of the prominent words on the banners was "KILL." As they were ushered out of the auditorium, some of the protesters chanted "Cuomo Lied, New Yorkers Died!" That line of attack almost certainly refers to Cuomo's catastrophic bungling of New York's response to Covid-19, which struck during his tenure as governor. His administration was widely condemned for ordering nursing homes to accept Covid-positive patients who were discharging from hospitals -- a mandate https://nypost.com/2025/04/24/us-news/cuomo-ambushed-by-protesters-at-nyc-mayoral-candidate-forum/
.
https://twitter.com/hashtag/Breaking?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
— Mary-Lyn Buckley (@ml_buckley) https://twitter.com/ml_buckley/status/1915216197710123383?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Cuomo barely budged as the mayhem broke out and then engulfed him. When it subsided he said, “That’s part of the problem in this system, right? Too much politics, not enough substance, not enough discussion." Later, he said, https://x.com/JCColtin/status/1915224394038681862
...A lot of these issues are contentious. People have different opinions and God bless.” Speaking of God, Cuomo resigned his governorship in August 2021 after at least 11 women filed various accusations of unwelcome sexual advances by the now-67-year-old -- from kisses to groping to creepy comments.
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At the podium, Henry Butler, the vice chair of the Brooklyn Democrats and organizer of the event -- and an endorser of Cuomo -- expressed disgust that white people would attempt to affect black people's opinions:
“The clown show is over. One of the issues and problems with the Democratic Party, who claim to be a big tent party, is that if you don’t have a certain view, then they try to shout you down. And I think it’s a disgrace when I see a bunch of young, WHITE progressives trying to tell black people who we should vote for. Do not tell us who we should vote for -- we are educated, we know how to think for ourselves. We don't need you here telling us what we should be doing and how we should vote!"
Contrary to Butler's characterization, it appeared most of the protesters were black -- including the first ones to mount the stage. If he's blaming the white protesters for the actions of the black ones, that would seemingly contradict his assertion that black people "don't need [whites]...telling us what we should be doing." Regardless, his denunciation of the white presence predictably elicited loud cheers and applause from the crowd:
“I think it’s a disgrace when I see a bunch of young, white, progressives trying to tell Black people who we should vote for,” Brooklyn Dems Vice Chair Henry Butler, who’s endorsed Cuomo for mayor, said after the protesters were walked out. “We know how to think for ourselves.” https://t.co/qPRDKXh227
— Jeff Coltin (@JCColtin) https://twitter.com/JCColtin/status/1915248518245110065?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
It's been a rough couple weeks for Cuomo. First, auditors reported that, under Cuomo, the state government poured $453 million into building an enormous stockpile of medical equipment essentially that went unused: https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/audit-cuomo-spent-453m-247343-medical-devices-covid-state-used-only-3
of equipment -- then left it to decay in warehouses the state rented to hold the horde. It's still sitting there five years after the pandemic arrived.
https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/andrew-cuomo-referred-doj-criminal-prosecution
, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer sent a letter to US Attorney General Pam Bondi, renewing his committee's criminal referral urging that Cuomo be investigated for making false statements to Congress -- about the deadly nursing home scandal. The previous referral was ignored by the Biden administration.
Several candidates are running for the Democratic nomination, but https://www.amny.com/politics/2025-mayors-race/nyc-mayors-race-cuomo-mamdani-gains/
, who's the choice of 22% of likely voters. However, he's surged from just 9% in January on a campaign centered on rent-freezes, free buses and free childcare funded in part by higher corporate taxes. Consistent with the messaging of the stage-stormers, he's also attacked Cuomo on his handling of Covid-19.
"We will tax the most profitable corporations at the same rate as the radical socialist utopia of New Jersey and use those taxes to pay for things that'll improve the lives of every New Yorker."
Unlike the Post, https://twitter.com/ZohranKMamdani?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
— Jack Cocchiarella (@JDCocchiarella) https://twitter.com/JDCocchiarella/status/1915161728981094874?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
If you enjoyed Wednesday night's spectacle, there's ample opportunity for more: The Democratic primary isn't until June 24; the general election is on Nov. 4.
https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden
Thu, 04/24/2025 - 18:25
Trump's Illegal Migrant Hunt Digs Into The IRS and Social Security
Trump's Illegal Migrant Hunt Digs Into The IRS and Social Security
,
Against fierce resistance, the Trump administration is enlisting the Internal Revenue Service and Social Security Administration in its crackdown on illegal immigration.
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On April 7, the IRS signed an agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that alarmed progressive pro-immigration groups and like-minded advocates – and https://federalnewsnetwork.com/people/2025/04/internal-revenue-service-agrees-to-send-immigrant-tax-data-to-ice-for-enforcement/
prompted the tax bureau’s acting chief to resign in protest.
The https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.278147/gov.uscourts.dcd.278147.31.1.pdf
allows ICE to request the tax return information of migrants who are not in this country legally. In recent days, as part of a push to encourage self-deportation, the Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration have also coordinated to strip benefits from otherwise inadmissible migrants granted parole during the Biden administration – a group posing national security concerns who have now had their parolee status revoked.
“Information sharing across agencies is essential to identify who is in our country, including violent criminals," an unnamed senior DHS official https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/irs-dhs-sign-data-sharing-agreement-taxpayer-data/story?id=120596710
, while stressing the desire to “determine what public safety and terror threats may exist so we can neutralize them, scrub these individuals from voter rolls, as well as identify what public benefits these aliens are using at taxpayer expense.”
Past administrations have largely avoided such information sharing, both because of turf-protecting impulses and privacy concerns. In the current climate, several immigrant advocacy groups have sued to thwart cooperation between the IRS and Department of Homeland Security, claiming that they are likely to violate taxpayer confidentiality laws. The critics assert that the new policy is aimed not at legitimately prosecuting individuals, but at https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.278147/gov.uscourts.dcd.278147.32.0.pdf#page=18
migrants as part of an effort to deport them en masse – or to pressure them into leaving on their own.
The controversy highlights the sometimes novel ways in which the Trump administration is seeking to break down walls between agencies to share data in pursuit of its policy goals – whether to combat illegal immigration, streamline government, or ensure election integrity – and resistance has come both from outside groups and from within the federal bureaucracy itself.
As RealClearInvestigations https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2022/06/29/willful_blindness_feds_ignore_massive_illegal_alien_id_theft_plaguing_americans_as_us_coffers_fill_839815.html
in 2022, the IRS and its partners, including the Social Security Administration, have been reluctant to share information with agencies like DHS pursuing non-citizens, in part on privacy grounds. The IRS has neglected to use its own enforcement powers, evidence suggests, because of a view that the benefits to working illegal migrants – in their tens of billions of dollars in tax contributions annually – outweigh the costs to Americans victimized by identity theft by migrants using their stolen Social Security numbers.
But the Trump administration has pledged to mine and modernize the government’s data systems to https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/stopping-waste-fraud-and-abuse-by-eliminating-information-silos/
and help combat waste, fraud, and abuse.
The Social Security Administration is ground zero for these efforts. Millions of non-citizens have been issued Social Security numbers in recent years after entering the country and being legally https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R47483
that the “Biden-Harris Administration abused the humanitarian parole program to indiscriminately allow 1.5 million migrants to enter our country.”
This month, DHS revoked the temporary parolee status of over 6,300 migrants either on the FBI’s terror watch list or with FBI criminal records. The federal government had issued all of them Social Security numbers. The Trump administration https://dailycaller.com/2025/04/10/donald-trump-administration-parole-aliens-fbi-terror-watchlist/
Medicaid. Dozens were also receiving unemployment insurance. Some obtained student loans.
On April 8, the Social Security Administration rendered this group ineligible for benefits and legal employment. It moved them to an internal “Ineligible Master File” – previously known as the “Death Master File,” since it contained rolls of dead former beneficiaries.
The Trump administration acted despite internal pushback, including from a senior Social Security IT official who appears to have been https://archive.ph/e4zUd
from his position in light of his opposition.
“President Trump promised mass deportations, and by removing the monetary incentive for illegal aliens to come and stay, we will encourage them to self-deport,” White House spokesperson Liz Huston told RCI. “He is delivering on his promise he made to the American people.”
Some 92,000 additional illegal migrants with criminal convictions but with Social Security numbers https://archive.ph/79QhS
make up the next group to be shifted to the Ineligible Master File.
Former Biden administration Social Security Administration head Martin O’Malley https://x.com/MartinOMalley/status/1910506693236318312
“If without due process, Trump and [Elon] Musk can unlawfully ‘disappear’ or ‘digitally murder’ anyone who legally entered our country, then they can do it to anyone already legally here,” said the former Maryland governor.
O’Malley’s acting successor at the Social Security Administration, like her IRS counterpart, https://archive.ph/kUOVZ
in February amid efforts by DOGE to access “sensitive government records.”
During a https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7kQNwJ4H_w
at least a percentage of the dead have been issued Social Security benefits.
The X owner on loan to the federal government says fraudsters have exploited the fact that government “databases don’t talk to each other.” As an example, Musk said some seek disability or unemployment insurance using the Social Security number of a person marked as living in the Social Security Administration’s systems but actually dead. Such fraud “is happening all the time at scale,” he asserted.
Social Security’s inspector general https://oig.ssa.gov/news-releases/2024-08-19-ig-reports-nearly-72-billion-improperly-paid-recommended-improvements-go-unimplemented/
for such benefits.
The government efficiency agency has also https://x.com/DOGE/status/1910170116236460081
nearly $400 million in fraudulent unemployment claims since 2020 – though it is unknown if any significant portion of these claims went to non-citizens.
In March, a federal judge https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mdd.577321/gov.uscourts.mdd.577321.49.0.pdf
it will appeal.
The White House has https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/ending-taxpayer-subsidization-of-open-borders/
that while federal law prohibits illegal migrants from obtaining taxpayer-funded benefits, “numerous administrations have acted to undermine the principles and limitations directed by the Congress through that law.” Such benefits in turn serve as a “magnet” for and “fuel” illegal immigration in the administration’s view.
Consequently, on April 15, President Trump issued an executive order, building on a prior order “https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/ending-taxpayer-subsidization-of-open-borders/
.” Such benefits include not only Social Security, but Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment insurance, and myriad other social programs.
A recent https://cis.org/Richwine/Welfare-Consumption-Illegal-Immigrants-Inevitable-Long-Theyre-Here
by Center for Immigration Studies shows that 59% of households headed by illegal immigrants use at least one welfare program – and are “especially likely to receive food benefits and Medicaid relative to native households.”
The Trump administration released a https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/04/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-prevents-illegal-aliens-from-obtaining-social-security-act-benefits/
in conjunction with its latest order citing a study by the Federation for American Immigration Reform indicating that taxpayers spend “at least $182 billion annually to cover the costs incurred by the presence of 20 million illegal aliens and their children, which includes $66.4 billion in Federal expenses plus an additional $115.6 billion in state and local expenses” – vastly outweighing their contributions including through paying taxes.
The order directs all impacted agencies not only to take relevant measures to ensure ineligible aliens are not receiving benefits, but also to prioritize civil or administrative enforcement actions – while beefing up the full-time fraud prosecution teams across such agencies in conjunction with the Justice Department. The order also calls for the Social Security Administration to investigate earnings reports for those 100 or older with names mismatching those on file at the administration and, when warranted, to refer matters to relevant law enforcement agencies.
The Earnings Suspense File
A major area of Social Security fraud pertaining to immigration is found in the agency’s Earnings Suspense File.
This file records the earnings of employees whose https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-w-2
, and to provide corroborating documentation and a valid Social Security number.
This effort failed to deter masses of illegal immigrants from entering the country and working – in turn contributing billions of dollars to entitlement programs in tax dollars, but doing so through stealing or fabricating Americans’ Social Security numbers, including those held by the elderly and children. The Social Security Administration https://archive.ph/Jr4TT#selection-2039.0-2042.0
two decades ago that up to 75% of illegal migrants working on the books used fake or stolen Social Security numbers.
A 2018 Treasury inspector general report https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/irs-documented-13m-identity-thefts-illegal-aliens-cant-say-it
more than 1.3 million cases of employment-related identity theft from 2011-2016, and, in 2017 alone, 1.2 million cases in which illegal migrants used Social Security numbers that belonged to someone else or were fabricated.
Reflecting this identification theft, the total amount of wages recorded in the Earnings Suspense File rose from under $80 billion in the 1980s to nearly $190 billion in the 1990s and then multiplied tenfold over the ensuing two decades, to $1.9 trillion in wages by the end of the first Trump administration. During the Biden years, as millions of additional illegal migrants entered the country, that number would again surge upwards to https://www.ssa.gov/finance/2024/Full%20FY%202024%20AFR.pdf#page=176
by September 2024.
For comparison with those numbers, workers all told https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/statcomps/eedata_sc/2022/eedata_sc22.pdf
$9.2 trillion of earnings taxable under Social Security – up to the individual maximum of $147,000 – during 2022, the latest year available.
Boon or Bane?
Some see the work of illegal migrants as a major boon to the economy. In a June 2024 https://itep.org/undocumented-immigrants-taxes-2024/
, indicating that a far higher estimated illegal migrant population of 15.5 million as of early 2022, earning lower wages than the competing analysis suggested, generated a net cost to taxpayers of $150.7 billion annually.
The Center for Immigration Studies’ Steven Camerota has testified before Congress that illegal migrants “tend to earn modest wages and make modest tax contributions even when income and payroll taxes are taken out of their pay. This fact, coupled with the relatively heavy demands they make on public coffers – especially for education, health care, and means-tested programs – is the reason they are a net fiscal drain.”
These figures do not take into account the costs to those whose identities have been stolen by illegal immigrants working off the books.
In a recent https://www.foxbusiness.com/video/6371362459112
, Trump administration Border Czar Tom Homan acknowledged the problem. “We know for a fact illegal aliens use Americans’ Social Security information to apply for jobs,” he said. Homan asserted that his wife had had her number stolen by an illegal migrant, hurting her credit.
In response to questions about whether immigration authorities would be making use of Social Security information to target illegal aliens for deportation, Homan replied that they should: “This is about protecting the American taxpayer, protecting their Social Security information.
“We’re protecting Social Security for the people who deserve it, for the people who paid into it for decades. We need to protect it for those that need it, and those who are authorized to receive it.”
The White House, Social Security Administration, DOGE, and the Treasury Department did not respond to RCI questions about whether they are examining the Earnings Suspense File to identify potential illegal migrants for pursuit in workplace enforcement activities.
Workplace Enforcement Called Key
The Social Security Administration did not say whether it would be restarting the process of issuing https://www.nilc.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/no-match-letters-faq-2019.pdf
to employers, indicating mismatched records between W-2s submitted and Social Security Administration records. The first Trump administration had issued such letters, but the Biden administration curtailed the practice, and generally eschewed workplace enforcement of immigration laws.
Proponents of the Trump administration’s mass deportation plans believe workplace enforcement is key to any such efforts. Ronald Mortenson recently https://cis.org/Mortensen/Workplace-Enforcement-Key-Mass-Deportations
DOGE and the Social Security Administration can facilitate these efforts by identifying fraudulently obtained and used Social Security numbers.
Tracking Illegal Voting
DOGE has reportedly used Social Security Administration information to help the Trump administration’s efforts to ensure non-citizens are not participating in U.S. elections. Antonio Gracias, a top DOGE official deployed to the Social Security Administration, recently https://podscripts.co/podcasts/all-in-with-chamath-jason-sacks-friedberg/doge-updates-liberation-day-tariff-reactions-with-ben-shapiro-and-antonio-gracias
that of more than 5 million non-citizens to receive Social Security numbers during the Biden years, not only were 1.3 million on Medicaid, but thousands were registered to vote, and some had voted – based upon DOGE’s investigation of the records of just a few states. The administration, Gracias said, had made criminal referrals. DOGE did not respond to RCI’s inquiries.
In a March 25 https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/preserving-and-protecting-the-integrity-of-american-elections/
, the Trump administration instituted a series of measures designed to ensure that only citizens vote in federal elections, while also calling on the Homeland Security Secretary to grant state and local officials access to federal databases for verifying the immigration status of those registering to vote or who have already been registered; to, in coordination with DOGE, review state voter rolls and cross-reference them with federal immigration databases and request relevant state records to identify foreign nationals registered to vote and to share such names with state or local election officials; and for the attorney general to “prioritize enforcement” of laws punishing non-citizen registration and voting, including through use of relevant federal and state databases.
As RCI has previously https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2024/08/14/vote_integritys_nitty-gritty_the_battle_lines_of_24s_epic_struggle_1051309.html
, many states historically lacked access to federal databases for ensuring their voter rolls are free of non-citizens – in part due to the alleged reticence of the Homeland Security Department.
The administration’s critics have not only cast doubt on DOGE’s findings of fraud and questioned the intent of the administration’s associated policies, but sought to challenge the efforts to unearth them in court as illegal. Plaintiffs have challenged DOGE’s ability to access systems and data at agencies ranging from the Treasury Department to the Department of Health and Human Services and the Office of Personnel Management.
Generally, they characterize such officials as unqualified if not separate and apart from the government – and therefore unauthorized to access the sensitive data contained in government databases, including under the Privacy Act.
In a representative https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.vaed.568472/gov.uscourts.vaed.568472.19.0.pdf
to one such suit, the Trump administration replied that it was facing “a spate of similar lawsuits seeking unprecedented judicial micromanagement of the Executive Branch’s ability to share government data with its own employees in exercising politically accountable oversight of agency activities.”
The administration boiled the arguments on the other side of many such cases down to this: “that it is unlawful for one employee of a federal agency to provide access to its data systems to another employee for the purpose of carrying out an Executive Order of the President.”
https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden
Thu, 04/24/2025 - 18:00
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/trumps-migrant-hunt-digs-irs-and-social-security