WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday the Trump administration had finished its six-week purge of programs of the six-decade-old U.S. Agency for International Development and he would move the 18% of aid and development programs that survived under the State Department.
Rubio made the announcement in a post on X, in one of his relatively few public comments on what has been a historic shift away from U.S. foreign aid and development, executed by Trump political appointees at State and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency teams.
Rubio thanked DOGE and “our hardworking staff who worked very long hours to achieve this overdue and historic reform” in foreign aid.
In another final step in the breakup of USAID, the Trump administration on Monday gave USAID staffers abroad until April 6 to move back to the United States if they want to do so on the government’s tab, according to a USAID email sent to staffers and seen by The Associated Press. Staffers say the deadline gives them scant time to pull children from school, sell homes or break leases, and, for many, find somewhere to live after years away from the United States.
Author: Owen
Recession Looming (it’s necessary)
The rout extended a miserable month for markets that has seen all three major indexes wipe out their gains since the US presidential election in November.
The widespread selloff was mostly driven by anxiety about the impact of Trump’s tariffs. In an interview that aired Sunday, Trump said the US economy would see “a period of transition” and refused to rule out a recession.
When asked on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures With Maria Bartiromo” if he was expecting a recession this year, Trump said “I hate to predict things like that. There is a period of transition because what we’re doing is very big.”
The classic definition of a recession is two consecutive quarters of GDP contraction. By that definition, we’ve had two recessions in the last five years.
Find more statistics at Statista
The pandemic recession is obvious. But remember that recession in 2022 that everyone ignored? We were told that it wasn’t really a recession because look at all of these other stats blah blah blah. But it was a recession and by ignoring it, we did not take corrective action.
Since then (and before), we have been propping up our GDP with insane levels of government spending. All of that spending has been fueled by debt. It is unsustainable.
For those of us in the private sector, I don’t think we ever really recovered from the 2022 recession. Several sectors of our economy have continued to struggle and have been contracting. Inflation and government spending have masked it, but it’s real.
What I hope we will see now is restraint in government spending and getting inflation under control. Those things will both uncover the already weak spots in our economy and trigger a recession in the parts being propped up by government spending (think renewable energy, real estate, healthcare, education, higher ed, etc).
This will hurt, but it is also necessary. A capitalist economy is not meant to never contract. It must, in fact, do so in order to force capital out of inflated parts of the economy and into more productive parts. The boom-and-bust cycle is not a bug of a healthy economy. It is a feature.
Furthermore, if we don’t get government spending (funded by debt) under control, we risk completely devaluing our currency and trigger nation-killing hyperinflation. That is far, far worse than a recession.
Gird your loins, folks. It’s going to get worse before it gets better.
Almost All of Biden’s Docs Signed by Same Autopen
Whoa.
The majority of official documents signed by President Joe Biden allegedly used the same autopen signature, reinvigorating concerns over the former president’s mental acuity and if he “actually ordered the signature of relevant legal documents,” a report published by an arm of the Heritage Foundation found.
“WHOEVER CONTROLLED THE AUTOPEN CONTROLLED THE PRESIDENCY,” the Oversight Project, which is an initiative within the conservative Heritage Foundation that investigates the government to bolster transparency, posted to X on Thursday.
“We gathered every document we could find with Biden’s signature over the course of his presidency. All used the same autopen signature except for the announcement that the former President was dropping out of the race last year. Here is the autopen signature,” the group claimed on X, accompanied by photo examples.
It is frustrating that nothing will be done. This is the kind of the thing that goes to the very heart of our system of government. If we are to be a self-governing people, then we must know that the people whom we elect are the ones making the decisions. Do we know that Joe Biden was actually making decisions and exercising the power of the presidency? Or was someone else – someone who was never elected – acting as our president? If the people we elect are not in charge, then we do not have a self-governing Republic. THAT is why we must know the truth of Biden’s actions, or inactions, and have procedures in place to ensure that someone else cannot act as our president.
Syrian Civil War Rages
A UK-based monitor said 830 civilians were killed in “massacres” targeting Alawites on the west coast on Friday and Saturday.
The BBC has been unable to independently verify the death toll of the violence, which is believed to be the worst since the fall of the Assad regime.
In a speech broadcast on national TV and posted on social media, Sharaa, whose rebel movement toppled Bashar al-Assad in December, also promised to hunt down Assad loyalists.
The fighting has also killed 231 members of the security forces and 250 pro-Assad fighters, according to the monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), taking the overall death toll to 1,311.
“Today, as we stand at this critical moment, we find ourselves facing a new danger – attempts by remnants of the former regime and their foreign backers to incite new strife and drag our country into a civil war, aiming to divide it and destroy its unity and stability,” the interim president said on Sunday.
“We affirm that we will hold accountable, firmly and without leniency, anyone who is involved in the bloodshed of civilians or harming our people, who overstepped the powers of the state or exploits authority to achieve his own ends,” Sharaa added in the video speech, posted by state news agency Sana.
My guess is – not informed by events in Syria but informed by what history teaches us – is that whatever violence may have been perpetrated by Assad loyalists, if any, is being used as an excuse by the new regime to liquidate opponents – both political and religious.
What’s really interesting is that Russia has long been a supporter of Syria and uses their influence there as a counterweight to the US’ influence in the region. But Russia has been largely silent supporting neither the Assad forces nor the new regime. It speak to how the Ukrainian war has drained Russia’s ability to intervene in other places in the world.
Deported Indians Share Stories
Yes. When you illegally enter another nation, you deserve to be treated like the ne’er-do-well you are. I would expect the same treatment for an American who illegally entered India. Send them home in shackles.
Gurpreet Singh was handcuffed, his legs shackled and a chain tied around his waist. He was led onto the tarmac in Texas by US Border Patrol, towards a waiting C-17 military transport aircraft.
It was 3 February and, after a months-long journey, he realised his dream of living in America was over. He was being deported back to India. “It felt like the ground was slipping away from underneath my feet,” he said.
Gurpreet, 39, was one of thousands of Indians in recent years to have spent their life savings and crossed continents to enter the US illegally through its southern border, as they sought to escape an unemployment crisis back home.
There are about 725,000 undocumented Indian immigrants in the US, the third largest group behind Mexicans and El Salvadoreans, according to the most recent figures from Pew Research in 2022.
Now Gurpreet has become one of the first undocumented Indians to be sent home since President Donald Trump took office, with a promise to make mass deportations a priority.
Gurpreet intended to make an asylum claim based on threats he said he had received in India, but – in line with an executive order from Trump to turn people away without granting them asylum hearings – he said he was removed without his case ever being considered.
About 3,700 Indians were sent back on charter and commercial flights during President Biden’s tenure, but recent images of detainees in chains under the Trump administration have sparked outrage in India.
US Border Patrol released the images in an online video with a bombastic choral soundtrack and the warning: “If you cross illegally, you will be removed.”
[…]
But on the ground, the intimidating images and President Trump’s rhetoric seem to be having the desired effect.
“No-one will try going to the US now through this illegal ‘donkey’ route while Trump is in power,” said Gurpreet.
Question About Student Loans if DOE Shuts Down
This is a solvable problem that does not require keeping the DOE alive.
As President Donald Trump prepares to order the dismantling of the Department of Education, the financial arm of the agency – which makes loans directly to borrowers and manages trillions of dollars in student debt – faces an uncertain future, with steep staff cuts and lack of communication exacerbating the uncertainty, according to interviews with more than a dozen current and former department employees.
The $1.64 trillion financial portfolio is managed separately from the department’s policy apparatus, the latter of which Trump has sought to wind down or reassign to other agencies. But Trump acknowledged Thursday that the massive loan balance was a complicating factor in his effort to shutter the agency.
“We’ve actually had that discussion today,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, suggesting that the debt could land at Treasury, Commerce, or the Small Business Administration. He said SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler “would really like to do it.”
And then there is the question of whether the government will stay in the business of lending money to students directly.
Project 2025 – the Heritage Foundation effort that was authored by many Trump allies, though Trump tried to distance himself from it during last year’s campaign – suggested a new agency should be established to extend loans going forward, run by a Senate-confirmed leader and board of trustees. But the government would get out of the business of making the loans directly, instead reverting back to a role as guarantor of loans underwritten by other companies. The new agency would be funded by Congress, with a goal of “treating taxpayers like investors,” with loans that could have better terms for certain academic disciplines or professions.
The policy remedy of Project 2025 is the right direction but doesn’t go far enough. The federal government should also get out of the business of guaranteeing loans. The federal government is in no position to judge the credit worthiness of debtors and funding higher education is not within the scope of responsibility of the federal government. If some states want to pick up this funding, that’s up to them.
End federal loans. Auction off existing debt to banks. Close the Department of Education.
Done.
Hunter’s Finances Have Collapsed
As we have been saying all along… Joe Biden WAS the family business. Selling access to Joe was how Hunter and others made money. With Joe out of office in disgrace, nobody is going to spend money on Hunter. Now he’s a 50-something year-old man with no marketable skills and no gainful way to make money. Pathetic waste of skin.
In a court filing on Wednesday, Mr Biden’s attorneys urged US District Judge Hernan D Vera to end the lawsuit, stating that he “has suffered a significant downturn in his income and has significant debt in the millions of dollars range”.
The son of former President Joe Biden has also faced a series of financial setbacks, with January’s wildfire in the Pacific Palisades – where he was staying – making his rental home “unliveable” for an extended period.
Along with struggling to find stable housing and deal with fire damage, Mr Biden is having difficulties earning a steady income, according to the filing, and major sources of money have dried up.
Mr Biden is unable to borrow and sales of both his art and his memoir – his two major income streams – have fallen off over the last 18 months, according to the filing.
He had sold 27 pieces of art for an average price of $54,500 in the years leading up to the lawsuit. He has sold only one piece for $36,000 since.
Book sales for his memoir, Beautiful Things, dropped from more than 3,100 copies between April and September 2023 to roughly 1,100 in the following six months.
Republicans Propose Penalties for MPS
There’s no way this won’t be vetoed by Governor Evers. There is no amount of illegal or crappy behavior that Evers won’t accept from a public school. Heck, Evers doesn’t even care that almost no black kids who attend MPS can read or write at grade level. Why would he care about the kids’ safety? This being the case, Republicans should go big.
Proposed legislation would penalize the Milwaukee Public Schools if the district cancels plans to place police officers inside school buildings. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
Republican lawmakers are proposing a law that would financially penalize the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) and the city of Milwaukee if they stop complying with a state law that requires police officers in schools.
The bill, coauthored by Rep. Bob Donovan (R-Greenfield) and Sen. Van Wanggaard (R-Racine), comes after months of noncompliance with state law by the school district. Wisconsin Act 12, which provided a boost in funding to local governments, included requirements that Milwaukee Public Schools place 25 school resource officers — sworn police officers assigned to schools.
Voters Sue Over Uncounted Ballots
Since WEC is incapable of holding election officials accountable for their incompetence or malfeasance, voters will have to do it through the courts.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Four Wisconsin voters whose ballots were not counted in the November presidential election initiated a class-action lawsuit Thursday seeking $175,000 in damages each.
The voters were among 193 in Madison whose ballots were misplaced by the city clerk and not discovered until weeks after the election. Not counting the ballots didn’t affect the result of any races.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission investigated but did not determine whether Madison Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl failed to comply with state law or abused her discretion.
She didn’t notify the elections commission of the problem until December, almost a month and a half after the election and after the results were certified on Nov. 29.
The goal is to reinforce and strengthen the right to vote in Wisconsin, said attorney Jeff Mandell, who is general counsel of Law Forward, which filed claims against the city of Madison and Dane County on Thursday.
Arguments Heard for Discrimination Case
Can we all just agree that discrimination in employment is just bad irrespective of whether one is in the majority or minority? Individual liberty and individual treatment are the paths to happiness.
Ames alleges her employer denied her a promotion and later demoted her, in both cases selecting gay candidates instead who were less qualified. Her supervisor at the time was also gay.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex and sexual orientation.
The Supreme Court has said that plaintiffs bringing claims under Title VII must, as a first step, show a prima facie case — or initial set of facts that, if unexplained, plausibly amount to discrimination.
The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals concluded that Ames didn’t meet that bar because — as a straight woman — she failed to show the necessary “background circumstances” necessary to show a plausible case of discrimination against her as a member of a majority group.
Ames argued the “background circumstances” requirement was an unfair added burden on her simply because she’s straight. Nearly all of the justices seemed to agree — even the attorney for the state of Ohio.
Corpses for Criminals
If there is anything that illustrates the imbalance of morality in this conflict, it’s this. Hamas is returning mutilated bodies of hostages. Israel is returning fat, healthy criminals and terrorists.
Israel and Hamas have moved forward with a hostage exchange, with the bodies of four dead hostages returned to Israel, officials said.
Israel has received the “coffins of four deceased abductees” that had been transferred from Hamas to the Red Cross, the Israeli Prime Minister’s office said in a statement.
[…]
The hostage-prisoner exchange is part of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas that was reached in January. Last week, Israel did not release more than 600 Palestinian prisoners it had agreed to release after Hamas returned a wrong body in place of the body of one of the dead hostages it said it would return. The correct body was later returned to Israel.
House GOP Passes Budget Bill
Well, this comes as a surprise. The devil is always in the details, but the initial highlights look promising considering the very narrow GOP majority. I don’t like the level of spending and additional debt. We must get our spending under control or we lose the nation. Check me if I’m wrong, but is this the first actual budget we’ve seen since 2019?
Republicans in the US House of Representatives have narrowly passed a sprawling government spending bill, a major boost for President Donald Trump as it advances his 2025 agenda.
The 217-215 vote was seen as a key early test for Republican House speaker Mike Johnson, who cancelled an earlier vote on the bill as it appeared he did not have enough support.
Several Republicans wanted more fiscal discipline from a budget that includes $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, funded partially by spending cuts but also by potentially increasing the US government’s substantial debt pile.
But the bill eventually passed along party lines, with all Democrats voting against and just one Republican – Thomas Massey of Kentucky – opposing it.
ICE to Track Down Missing Children
Excuse me, but why weren’t they doing this under the prior administration? Why the heck were the NOT SEARCHING FOR THE MISSING CHILDREN!?!? The Biden Administration facilitated the largest child trafficking operation in history.
President Donald Trump’s administration is directing immigration agents to track down unaccompanied migrant children in the U.S., a source familiar with the plans told ABC News.
An internal document from Immigration and Customs and Enforcement (ICE), headlined the “Unaccompanied Alien Children Joint Initiative Field Implementation,” said the initiative claims to prevent children from being human trafficked or other types of exploitation.
There are more than 600,000 migrant children who have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border without a legal guardian or parent since 2019, according to government data.
NYC Cashes in on Congestion Pricing
It was never about congestion. It was always about government extracting more money to spend.
From Jan. 5, the first day of the program, to Jan. 31, tolls from the congestion pricing program generated $48.66 million, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which manages the city’s subways as well as bridges and commuter rails.
The net revenue for that period was $37.5 million when taking into account expenses to run the program, the MTA said.
[…]
New York officials have touted the success of the program in easing traffic, with Hochul saying last week that congestion has “dropped dramatically” since the program went into effect last month.
Do you notice anything about that last paragraph? There aren’t any details whatsoever. No statistics. No traffic numbers. Nothing.
Monster to be Executed by Firing Squad
We don’t want it to be completely inhumane, but that is a lesser consideration than effectiveness.
A South Carolina death row inmate has chosen to die by firing squad, a controversial and rarely used execution method that’s legal but is viewed as an inhumane form of justice by many Americans. Brad Sigmon, 67, is scheduled to be executed on March 7. He was convicted in 2001 of killing his ex-girlfriend’s parents at their home. Prosecutors said Sigmon also held his ex-girlfriend at gunpoint and attempted to kidnap her, but she escaped. He shot at her as she ran, but missed.
Sigmon’s execution next month will be South Carolina’s first death by firing squad, which was legalized in the state in 2021.
Sigmon didn’t choose electrocution because it would “burn and cook him alive,” his attorney, Gerald King, said in a statement, according to the Associated Press.
[…]
In the U.S., 34 people have been executed by firing squad, according to data from the DPIC. It’s the only method of execution that has a 0% botched rate. Comparatively, death by lethal injection has the most botched execution rate at 7.12%.
Apple to Invest Half Trillion Dollars in U.S.
Excellent! Note that it looks like many, if not most, of the jobs created will not be “high tech” jobs. They will be good ol’ construction and manufacturing jobs – jobs that build the Middle Class
Apple (AAPL) announced Monday that it will spend and invest more than $500 billion in the US over the next four years, including plans to build a new manufacturing factory, double its advanced manufacturing fund, and hire 20,000 people.
“We are bullish on the future of American innovation, and we’re proud to build on our long-standing U.S. investments with this $500 billion commitment to our country’s future,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement.
“From doubling our Advanced Manufacturing Fund, to building advanced technology in Texas, we’re thrilled to expand our support for American manufacturing. And we’ll keep working with people and companies across this country to help write an extraordinary new chapter in the history of American innovation.”
Zelensky Willing to Step Down for Peace
No, Ukraine didn’t start the war, but Zelensky did use it as an excuse to suspend elections and consolidate power in his hands. The fact that he is offering to step down (if you believe him) instead of standing for election says something.
Volodymyr Zelensky said he would be willing to “give up” his presidency in exchange for peace ahead of the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“If you need me to leave this chair, I am ready to do that. And I also can exchange it for Nato membership for Ukraine,” the Ukrainian president said in response to a question during a news conference.
His comments came after US President Donald Trump called Zelensky a “dictator without elections” earlier in the week.
“I wasn’t offended [by the comment], but a dictator would be,” Zelensky, who was democratically elected in May 2019, responded on Sunday.
70 Christians Beheaded by Muslims in the Congo
JOHANNESBURG – Seventy Christians have been beheaded with machetes or large knives, according to multiple groups that monitor terrorism and persecution, by Islamist militants in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – and yet the world remains mostly silent.
The 70 Christians were first rounded up by Islamist rebels from the Allied Democratic Forces, a group affiliated with the terror group Islamic State, or ISIS, according Open Doors U.S., which monitors Christian persecution around the world. The Christians, reportedly all from the Lubero district, were forced out of their homes allegedly early in the morning of Feb. 13, with the rebels shouting, “Get out, get out.”
They were taken hostage, and moved to a small Christian church in the village of Kasanga. There, inside the building that had until then been considered a sanctuary, they were first tied up, and then all 70 were beheaded, the groups say.
A Good Reminder that Even Federal Judges Can Be Idiots
Yup.
A federal judge blocked President Donald Trump’s bid to deprive federal funding from programs that incorporate “diversity, equity and inclusion” initiatives.
U.S. District Judge Adam Abelson ruled that Trump’s policy likely violates the First Amendment because it penalizes private organizations based on their viewpoints. And the judge said the policy is written so vaguely that it chills the free speech of federal contractors concerned they will be punished if they don’t eliminate programs meant to encourage a diverse workforce.
Abelson, a Baltimore-based appointee of former President Joe Biden, said longstanding court precedent bars the federal government from “leveraging its funding to restrict federal contractors and grantees from otherwise exercising their First Amendment rights.”
Let’s engage in a simple logic exercise. If the federal government can put DEI requirements into contracts that requires private companies to comply by having DEI programs, then the opposite is equally true. The newly elected federal government can insist that companies that do business with the federal government do not have DEI programs. It does not violate the 1st Amendment because there is nothing that compels a private company to do business with the federal government. Most companies don’t.
Trump Sacks the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs
Civilian leadership of our military is a bedrock principle of our Republic and any free nation. This is what that looks like.
US President Donald Trump has fired the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff CQ Brown, the highest-ranking officer in the country, as part of a major shake-up of top military leadership.
“I want to thank General Charles ‘CQ’ Brown for his over 40 years of service to our country,” Trump posted on social media. He said five other top officers were also being replaced.
[…]
All three top officers removed on Friday were appointed by Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden.
Hegseth said in a statement: “Under President Trump, we are putting in place new leadership that will focus our military on its core mission of deterring, fighting and winning wars.”
Trump said he would nominate Air Force Lt Gen Dan Caine – a career F-16 pilot who most recently served as CIA associate director for military affairs – as the new chairman of the joint chiefs of staff.