Japanese Carmakers Face Catastrophic Profit Hit From Trump's Auto Tariffs

As the fallout from Trump’s tariff plans comes into relief, a harsh truth is emerging for the automotive industry: there are lots of losers and not many winners. But foreign automakers, those without US facilities, will be hit especially hard. 

As Bloomberg notes, from South Korea’s Hyundai to Germany’s Volkswagen, and to a lesser extent America’s own General Motors, many of the world’s most prominent carmakers will soon face higher costs from Trump’s new levies on auto imports and key components. That's because about 46% of all new cars sold in the US are imported.

“There are very few winners,” Sam Fiorani, vice president of global vehicle forecasting for AutoForecast Solutions, said in a phone interview. “Consumers will be losers because they will have reduced choice and higher prices.”

One notable winner in the tariff chaos is Elon Musk. His Tesla, which has large factories in California and Texas, churns out all the electric vehicles it sells in the US, although as Elon noted late on Wednesday, the company will also not remain unscathed.

Important to note that Tesla is NOT unscathed here. The tariff impact on Tesla is still significant.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 27, 2025

Ford could also face a less-severe impact than some rivals, with about 80% of the cars it sells in the US being built domestically.

Others will be less lucky: starting April 2, the new 25% tariffs will apply to all imported passenger vehicles and light trucks, as well as key parts like engines, transmissions. 

Not surprisingly, the tariffs give automakers that heavily source parts in the US an edge, and Trump also allowed an exemption: the new levies will only apply to the non-US share of vehicles and parts imported under a free-trade agreement with Canada and Mexico. That may soften the blow for vehicles whose supply lines zig-zag across the continent. 

Tariffs on parts from Canada and Mexico that comply with the trade deal also won’t take effect until the US sets up a process to collect those levies. The US neighbors could use that window to try to stave off full implementation, even if it’s a long shot.

And while NAFTA, pardon USMCA, nations will do everything in their power to be loopholed out, foreign brands heavily reliant on imported vehicles are fresh out of luck. South Korea’s auto giant Hyundai risks being among the hardest hit: although the carmaker and its affiliate Kia have plants in Alabama and Georgia, and just yesterday announced a $21 billion US expansion plan, it imported more than a million vehicles to the US last year, accounting for more than half of its sales in the country, according to figures from Global Data. 

Hyundai “remains committed to the long-term growth of the US automotive industry through localized production and innovation,” the company said in a statement, noting it employs 570,000 people in the US. Unfortunately, according to Trump, it should employ many more, and if the company - which imports almost 60% of the cars it sells in the US - wishes to avoid tariffs, it will have to not only hire more American workers, but build many more US plants. Oh, and this is just the beginning: once the reciprocal tariffs kick in next week, South Korean exporters will find themselves in a world of pain.

What about Japan? Let's take a closer look at the country which historically has been the biggest global auto maker, and which produces 1.3 million (and another 0.4 million tolled in Mexico) of the 16 million annual car sales (Toyota 0.6mn, Subaru 0.3mn, Nissan 0.2mn, Mazda 0.2mn, MMC 0.1mn, Honda 0.01mn). For Japan, autos account for >30% of Japan’s exports to the US, which imports about 46% of all autos sold each year.

Based on an average sales price of US$45,000, the value of imports would exceed US$330 billion, and US import tariffs could have a major impact on sales prices and auto demand. All else equal, they would raise about $100 billion in annual tax revenues. But all else will certainly not be equal, especially once exporting nations slide into recession, and their export industries are crippled.

In an analysis published three weeks ago (report available to pro subs), Goldman looked at one scenario where Japanese cars are hit with 25% tariffs, along with imports from Mexico and Canada. The results were dire. According to Goldman analyst Kota Yuzawa, the potential impact on Japanese auto companies' operating profit - assuming a tariff of 25% on Japan in line with that imposed on imports from Canada and Mexico - is shown below. In this scenario Goldman assumes that sales volumes decline as a result of price hikes made by each company in order to offset the negative impact of tariffs (volume decline of 8-26% based on a 25% price hike for Canada/Mexico/Japan-made vehicles). In that scenario the profit hit will be anywhere between 6% for Toyota to 59% for Mazda.

In terms of exposure, Yuzawa calculates that production volume in US is largest for Subaru (39%), Honda (27%), Toyota (13%), Nissan (13%), Mazda (7%).

In another, far more draconian scenario, Japanese automakers are unable or simply refuse to hike prices to offset volume declines. The consequences are catastrophic and result in the following hit to operating profits: Toyota -¥570 bn, Honda -¥350 bn, Nissan -¥130 bn, and Mazda -¥60 bn. The implied impact on Goldman's FY3/26 operating profit forecasts would be as follows: Toyota -11%, Honda -23%, Nissan -66%, and Mazda -34%, with Nissan and Mazda seeing relatively large impacts given their larger export mix from Canada/Mexico.

That's just the start: in addition to the direct potential impact on finished vehicle exports described above, parts makers also have supply chains spanning multiple countries. Indeed, Toyota-affiliated companies that announced 3Q (October-December) results on January 31 referred to tariff risks. Denso’s sales from Mexico/Canada operations to the US total about ¥220 bn, while Aisin’s are about ¥60 bn. If a 25% tariff were also imposed on parts, Goldman warns forecasts potential profit declines of ¥55 bn/¥15 bn at Denso/Aisin. Toyota Boshoku did not disclose figures but noted a large potential impact, as much of its seat sewing is conducted in Mexico. Parts makers are working to pass on higher costs to automakers. Denso’s management expressed hope that tariff impact would be mitigated to some extent by the possibility of US corporate tax cuts and a weaker Mexican peso.

Ultimately, Goldman's Yuzawa expects price increases to spread across the US auto industry, and after several years of pain, tariffed exports will find some parity with domestic producers: “Automobiles are essential goods, however, and in the longer term we expect demand for them to recover and the negative impact of tariffs on volume to gradually diminish as production of US-made models and procurement of US-made parts increases. In addition, the used car market is also robust. Higher new car prices are likely to lead to higher used car prices, which could also boost vehicle purchasing power through higher residual values. Our economists estimate price elasticity of demand at 1.2-1.5 in the short term and 0.2 in the medium term, and we use the midpoint of 1.35 in our scenario analysis in this report.”

The problem is what happens until the equilibrium point is reached over several years, and how painful will the looming Japanese recession be, because make no mistake: Japan is now almost certainly facing a recession: Takahide Kiuchi, executive economist at Nomura Research Institute (NRI), expects an 25% increase in U.S. auto tariffs to push down Japan's GDP by at least 0.2%. 

"The Trump tariff has the potential to immediately push Japan's economy into deterioration," he said.

But what is worst of all for Japan is that the so-called virtuous wage-price cycle in which the perenially deflating nation managed to find itself, is now also doomed. That's because the auto industry has been the driver of recent wage hikes according to Reuters, as automakers distribute the huge profits they reaped overseas to their employees. Starting April 2, kiss those profits goodbye... and if Japanese automakers want to avoid plummeting stock prices, or worse, bankruptcy, what they will immediately do is announce that any future wage increases have been put on hold and, just as likely, are about to hit reverse.

Not surprisingly, Japan’s government has expressed serious concern over the potential fallout from newly announced US tariffs, warning of risks to both bilateral economic ties and global trade stability.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said on Thursday that Tokyo is closely monitoring the situation following Trump’s announcement of additional tariffs. Speaking at a press briefing, Hayashi cautioned that the broad-based nature of the U.S. trade measures could have far-reaching consequences.

“We believe that the current measures and other broad-based trade restrictions by the U.S. government could have a significant impact on the economic relationship between Japan and the U.S., as well as on the global economy and the multilateral trading system,” he said.

If only there was anything Japan could do to retaliate.

As forexlive notes, one thing Hayashi didn't mention was that the new tariffs are likely to trim back the prospect of a May rate hike from the Bank of Japan, echoing what we said, namely that "these new tariffs will hit Japan's auto industry hard, and thus economic data."

More in the full Goldman note "Scenario analysis on US tariffs on Mexico/Canada for Japanese automakers" available to pro subs.

Tyler Durden Thu, 03/27/2025 - 00:12

55 Ways That Everything That You Think That You Own Is Being Systematically Taken Away From You

Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

The entire system has been designed to generate as much revenue from your activity as possible until someday you eventually drop dead.  

It is tax season, and that means that it is time to feed the largest and most bloated government in the history of the entire planet once again.  Of course the federal income tax is just one of the ways that they are systematically draining your wealth.  As you will see below, there are literally dozens of taxes that Americans must pay each year.

 Many of our politicians seem to revel in inventing ways to extract money out of us, and that needs to stop.

Most Americans are working extremely hard, and yet money seems to keep going out the other end faster than it is coming in.

The truth is that the entire system has been designed to take what you have away from you.

There are many ways that this is accomplished – taxation, inflation, debt, interest, fines, fees, tickets, government seizures and good old-fashioned corporate greed.

If you decided to just sit back and do nothing but hold on to the wealth that you already have, you would find out that it would disappear quite rapidly.

It is not an accident that most Americans are experiencing a declining standard of living.  The system is rigged, and the rigging has not been in our favor.

The following are 55 ways that everything that you think that you own is being systematically taken away from you…

#1 Do you think that you own your home?  You might want to think again.  Most Americans that “own a home” are paying a mortgage.  If you stop paying that mortgage you will lose that home.  The number of foreclosures in the United States last year was up 174 percent from 2021, and mortgage delinquencies have been rising in recent months.

When homeowners get booted out of their homes, they don’t get their down payments back.

They also don’t get all of the mortgage payments that they have made back.

The banks get to keep the money and the homes.

Perhaps you have paid off your mortgage.  Does that mean that you now “own your home”?

No, not really.  Just refuse to pay your property taxes and see what happens.  At best, you can say that you have the right to rent your home from the government.

In any event, the reality is that the banks now own more of “our homes” than we do.

Just check out your most recent mortgage statement and see how much “home equity” you actually have.

If you recently purchased your home, it probably isn’t much at all.

Things used to be far different in this country.  Once upon a time, ordinary Americans owned most of the homes and most of the land in this nation.

But now the banks own most of it.  Sadly, most American families that believe that they “own homes” are actually enslaved to 20 or 30 year debt contracts.

And if something happens and you are unable to keep making payments, you could lose everything.

#2 Do you think that you own your vehicle?  You don’t own it if you are still making payments on it.  Of course if you stop making payments you will rapidly lose that vehicle.

But even if it is paid off, you can only operate that vehicle if you do the following…

*You must pay the license fee.

*You must pay the car registration fee.

*You must pay the emissions inspection fee.

*You must pay the property taxes on that vehicle if that applies in your area.

*You must pay the tire taxes.

*You must pay the gas taxes.

If you have paid all of those taxes, then you are permitted to drive only where the government allows you to drive and only under the rules that the government sets for you.

But at least you “own” your vehicle, right?

#3 What about your possessions?  Do you own them?

Well, yes, you probably own some possessions.

But that doesn’t mean that they are not enslaving you.

After all, did you use a credit card to pay for any of them?

If so, you could end up paying far more for your possessions than you originally thought that they cost.

#4 Do you own your education?  Well, it is undeniable that nobody can ever take it away from you.  But if you took out student loans to get your education, that debt may end up enslaving you for decades.

The borrower is the servant of the lender and student loan debt is more of a financial drain on Americans than ever before.  Americans now owe more on their student loans than they do on their credit cards.

Today, Americans owe more than 1.7 trillion dollars on their student loans, which is a new all-time record.

#5 Will you protect your wealth if you put your money in the bank?

No, in fact your wealth will be systematically destroyed in the bank.

Inflation is a hidden tax on every single dollar that you own, because it destroys the value of all dollars in existence.

There are some Americans that have been saving money for decades, but those savings are being taxed into oblivion by inflation.

Just compare the price of a carton of 12 eggs five years ago to the price of a carton of eggs today.

When the cost of living goes up, the value of the money that we have put in the bank goes down.

#6 Insurance costs continue to soar.  After insuring virtually everything in our lives, many of us barely have any money left over to actually live our lives with.

#7 State and local governments all over the nation have turned to ticket writing as a primary revenue source.  They know that most people do not carefully follow the speed limit, and so they have turned that behavior into a revenue-generating tool.

#8 Some states have decided to simply confiscate wealth even if nothing has been done wrong.  For example, some states are now aggressively seizing “unclaimed” safe deposit boxes.  If you have a safe deposit box that you have not checked on in a while, you might want to make sure that it is still there.

#9 You might end up losing your valuables when you cross the border.  U.S. border agents regularly seize laptops and other electronic devices as people cross the border.  In many cases those items are never returned.

#10 If you don’t pay your property taxes, you will lose your home and it will likely be a big Wall Street bank that will end up owning it.  The big Wall Street banks have been buying up thousands of tax liens and are making a killing by socking distressed homeowners with predatory interest, outrageous penalties and almost unbelievable legal fees.

#11 Of course the federal income tax is one of the biggest ways that our wealth is being drained.  One of the primary reasons why the Federal Reserve and the IRS were established back in 1913 was to redistribute wealth.  Wealth is transferred from hard working Americans to the U.S. government, and then it is redistributed to those that aren’t working or spent on some of the most wasteful programs imaginable.

Needless to say, federal taxes are just one of the taxes that we pay.  The truth is that the average American pays dozens of different taxes each year.   The following are just a few examples of the insidious forms of taxation that drain our wealth…

#12 Building Permit Tax

#13 Capital Gains Tax

#14 CDL License Tax

#15 Cigarette Tax

#16 Corporate Income Tax

#17 Court Fines (an indirect tax)

#18 Dog License Tax

#19 Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)

#20 Fishing License Tax

#21 Food License Tax

#22 Fuel Permit Tax

#23 Gasoline Tax

#24 Gift Tax

#25 Hunting License Tax

#26 Inheritance Tax

#27 IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)

#28 Liquor Tax

#29 Local Income Tax

#30 Luxury Taxes

#31 Marriage License Tax

#32 Medicare Tax

#33 Payroll Taxes

#34 Phone Taxes

#35 Property Taxes

#36 Real Estate Tax

#37 Recreational Vehicle Tax

#38 Road Toll Booth Taxes

#39 Road Usage Taxes (Truckers)

#40 Sales Taxes

#41 School Tax

#42 Septic Permit Tax

#43 Social Security Tax

#44 State Income Tax

#45 State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)

#46 Toll Bridge Taxes

#47 Toll Tunnel Taxes

#48 Traffic Fines (indirect taxation)

#49 Trailer Registration Tax

#50 Utility Taxes

#51 Vehicle License Registration Tax

#52 Vehicle Sales Tax

#53 Watercraft Registration Tax

#54 Well Permit Tax

#55 Workers Compensation Tax

When you take all forms of taxation into account, there are some people that hand over more than 50 percent of their incomes to various levels of government each year.

Even the future is being taken away from us.  The future is literally being stolen from our children and our grandchildren.  They will be inheriting the 36 trillion dollar national debt that we have accumulated.

What we have done to future generations is unthinkable, and yet we continue to borrow colossal mountains of money.

When you base an entire economy on debt, eventually you end up with money problems that never seem to end.  As a nation, we are now enslaved to a vicious spiral of debt that threatens to destroy everything that our forefathers worked so hard to build.

As the debt loads of our federal, state and local governments become even more burdensome, they are going to want even more money from us.  For decades we gave in to new tax after new tax thinking that it would finally satisfy them.

But it never seems to be enough.  They always want more.

Unfortunately, most Americans are so caught up in the “rat race” that they never take much time to think about who designed the race or why they are running it.

It is time to wake up.

We are being systematically abused by the control freaks that are running things, and it is time to say that enough is enough.

*  *  *

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

Tyler Durden Wed, 03/26/2025 - 23:25

Florida Considers Easing Child Labor Laws To Make Up For Fewer Illegal Workers

With an eye on offsetting the loss of illegal-immigrant labor, the Florida legislature is considering a bill that would ease the state's child labor laws. A bill that advanced from a committee on Tuesday would make it legal for children as young as 14 to work graveyard shifts on school nights.  

The hours at issue are those between 11pm and 6:30 am. The controversial bill was given the blessing of the Florida Commerce and Tourism Committee by a narrow 5-4 vote, and now faces the scrutiny of two more committees before it can receive a vote of the Senate. Governor Ron DeSantis has backed the proposal, saying an easing of child labor laws can help fill employers' needs as the state makes it increasingly difficult for illegal immigrants to work there. 

Last year, Florida started to allow 16- and 17-year-old home-schooled and virtually-schooled children to work anytime at all. The new bill would extend that freedom to 14- and 15-year-olds. However, it would also let 16- and 17-year-olds in traditional schools work any hour of the day. It would also allow them to work more than an 8-hour-day on a school night, and more than 30 hours a week while schools are in session.  

"What’s wrong with expecting our young people to be working part-time now?" asked Florida Gov Ron DeSantis  (Matias J. Ocner/AP via CNN)

The move comes in the wake of a statewide crackdown on the use of illegal immigrants. A 2023 Florida law compels employers with 26 or more workers to confirm their immigration status by using the federal E-Verify system -- under threat of $1,000 daily fines for non-compliance. That internet-based system cross-checks the information the employees put on "Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification." The loss of illegal labor has some people worried about the effect on the Sunshine State's economy. 

DeSantis has argued that loosening restrictions on younger workers is a big part of solution. “Why do we say we need to import foreigners -- even import them illegally --- when teenagers used to work at these resorts, college students should be able to do this stuff,” DeSantis said during a panel discussion last week with Tom Homan, acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). "What’s wrong with expecting our young people to be working part-time now? I mean, that’s how it used to be when I was growing up,” added DeSantis. 

The bill is sponsored by Tampa Republican Jay Collins, an Army Special Forces veteran who continued to serve after a leg amputation 

Some have expressed concern that teenagers will be put in tougher situations at work, as they won't be able to point to a state law as a reason for being available to labor into the wee hours. “The teens who will be most harmed by this bill are low-income young people or those without documented status who are compelled by their situation to work,” Nina Mast of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute told the Miami Herald. She argued that the legislature is "essentially trying to legalize violations that employers are already committing.”

In the committee hearing, the bill's sponsor, Tampa Republican Jay Collins, argued that “This is a parental rights thing. Parents know their kids best." Dismissing visions of teens slaving away in hazardous envionments, he said, "Ultimately, we’re not talking about ‘The Jungle’ by Upton Sinclair. We’re talking about them working at Publix, at Piggly Wiggly or jobs within the industry."

There's another dynamic to consider: If families are so hard-pressed that they need their children to work night jobs, lacking the opportunity for legal employment may help push desperate adults and children into illegal activity -- from thievery to prostitution and drug sales.   

Tyler Durden Wed, 03/26/2025 - 23:00

House Panel To Consider Bill For Concealed-Carry Permit Reciprocity

Authored by Michael Clements via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

For the sixth Congress in a row, bills to require states to honor out-of-state concealed weapons permits are in both chambers of Congress.

People try out firearms at the National Rifle Association (NRA) exhibits at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas, Texas, on May 18, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

The House Judiciary Committee will mark up its version of the legislation on March 25. President Donald Trump has promised to sign it if it reaches his desk.

Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) introduced HR 38 in the House on Jan. 3. The Senate version, S 65, introduced by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) on Jan. 9, is before that chamber’s Judiciary Committee.

Proponents of the reciprocity bills say they require concealed weapons permit holders to comply with all other gun laws in whatever state they are in. For example, if the state prohibits guns in places of worship, he or she couldn’t concealed carry in those places even if their home state allows it.

Opponents of the legislation say that’s not true.

David LaBahn, president and CEO of the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, said his organization opposed the legislation when it was introduced in 2017 and that it has not changed its position.

He said the bills, as they are currently written, would require police to know the gun laws in all 50 states and to take the word of out-of-state visitors that whatever state gun permit they present is valid.

The critics contend that states with strict gun laws, like California and New York, would be forced to recognize permits from states with fewer restrictions. According to LaBahn, that means that people from states with less gun control would not be subject to the stricter regulations.

“As long as you’re from an open-carry state, you can open carry any place in the country you choose,” LaBahn told The Epoch Times.

On its website, Giffords.org—the gun control group founded by former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who was shot during an event in Tucson, Arizona—criticized Republicans for introducing the legislation on Jan. 8, the anniversary of Giffords’s shooting.

Her webpage has links to objections it presented in 2017, when HR 38 was voted out of the Judiciary Committee. The bill did not get a floor vote at that time.

“A New York police officer is not trained to enforce Montana gun laws,” the website reads. “Under some versions of [concealed carry reciprocity], if an officer accidentally arrests someone they think is breaking the wrong state’s law, the police officer could be charged with a crime.”

LaBahn said that states currently arrange reciprocity compacts. Compacts ensure that officials understand the laws in each member state.

However, the reciprocity bills disregard state laws, he said.

“This is really an anti-10th Amendment Bill where the federal authorities are stepping in,” LaBahn said.

Chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), joined by other House Republicans, speaks during a first press conference since the 2024 presidential election results on Capitol Hill in Washington on Nov. 12, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

Proponents of the bills say that LaBahn’s interpretation is wrong.

Amy Swearer, an attorney and a senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation, carries a concealed firearm. She said reciprocity for concealed carry permits would make her life easier.

Swearer lives in Virginia but travels through other states regularly for work. She said the reciprocity would give her peace of mind, knowing that she is not breaking the law in a state she’s visiting by simply exercising her Second Amendment rights.

“The state in which [the concealed carry permit holder is] in can’t prosecute them for the offense of carrying without a license or unlawful carry. [But] that person would still have to abide by all the other carry laws in that state,” Swearer told The Epoch Times.

Currently, under the federal Firearm Owners Protection Act, nonresidents can legally transport unloaded firearms through a state if they are traveling to or from a place where they can legally possess the firearm.

Swearer said that with the bill, there may end up being some other local gun laws that won’t apply to out-of-state visitors, such as gun registration requirements. But importantly, reciprocity does not require the state of New York, with strict gun regulations, to allow Oklahoma residents act in accordance with only Oklahoma’s gun regulations when they are in the Empire State.

“So nothing in this bill would require states in any capacity to change their existing gun laws or restrictions on where people can or cannot carry,” Swearer said.

John Commerford, executive director of the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) Institute for Legislative Action, said national reciprocity for concealed carry is the NRA’s top goal for this Congress. He said Trump has promised to sign the bill if it reaches his desk.

Rachel Sumler of Arlington, Texas, looks over concealed carry purses during the National Women's Range Day in Dallas, on March 9, 2024, as her 18-month-old daughter, Lilliana, naps. Michael Clements/The Epoch Times

Commerford said the law does have one requirement that gun owners in at least 29 states with permitless carry should be aware of.

“Under HR 38, you would need a permit from your state to carry in the other states,” Commerford told The Epoch Times.

According to Commerford, 29 states are “Constitutional Carry” states. These states do not require permits to carry a concealed firearm in public for individuals who can legally possess a firearm.

All but one of these states offer a permit even though it isn’t required. Vermont has never required a concealed carry permit.

Commerford said a permit provides evidence that the gun owner has met some legal requirements for carrying a firearm. He also said that the bill is part of a larger objective.

“The ultimate goal would be to have constitutional carry nationwide. However, HR 38 is politically viable in this Congress,” Commerford said.

Commerford admitted that politically viable isn’t the same as a done deal. However, with a majority of the states adopting Constitutional Carry and Republicans controlling both chambers and the White House, Commerford said the NRA will work to get the bill on the floor of the House and then on to the Senate.

LaBahn said his organization will monitor the bill and take any action they deem appropriate to prevent its progress. He said that if the bill’s supporters really believe they have the backing of the majority of states, perhaps they should change their strategy.

“If the desire is to have national right to carry, Congress can establish that, and [eliminate] state to state confusion. This act is ... a very poor second best to their intent and will likely get people hurt,” LaBahn said.

Tyler Durden Wed, 03/26/2025 - 22:35

Jails Have Become "Fentanyl Free-For-Alls" Thanks To Dem Bill That Banned Strip Searches

Washington’s soft-touch jail policies have turned facilities into fentanyl hotspots, thanks to rules that make it harder to properly search inmates, according to Jason Rantz at 770 KTTH. 

Rantz writes this week that Thurston County Sheriff Derek Sanders recently sounded the alarm after two overdoses at his jail tied to drugs smuggled in body fat.

“Once the drugs made their way in, a different inmate consumed the drugs and overdosed,” Sanders said. “Life-saving efforts from jail staff prevented the overdose from being fatal.”

Days later, it happened again—this time, fentanyl was found under an inmate’s breast.

“A Corrections Sergeant observed an inmate acting oddly and immediately called for medical,” Sanders reported. “CPR was performed for 10 minutes... Narcan deployment... The inmate will be booked on new felony charges.”

In his piece, Rantz writes that that It shouldn’t be this easy for an obese inmate to sneak drugs into jail—but thanks to misguided policies, it is.

This stems from 2SSB 5695, a 2022 Democratic bill—ironically also backed by Republicans—that banned “dehumanizing” strip searches and mandated body scanners. But the Department of Health, tasked with setting scanner rules, imposed such weak radiation limits under WAC 246-230-040 that scanners can’t detect drugs hidden in body fat.

“The new rules under WAC 246-230-040, implemented in January 2025, force scanners to use laughably low radiation levels to appease activists screaming about ‘ALARA’ (As Low As Reasonably Achievable) principles,” wrote Sheriff Sanders.

Lawmakers say the new rules protect inmates from radiation—but that claim doesn’t hold up.

The previous scan dose—2.00 µSv—was already safer than a dental X-ray. Sheriff Sanders pointed out it would take 1,000 scans to hit the annual limit. “Strip searches cannot be conducted on every inmate who is booked... but its [the scanner’s] effectiveness isn’t nearly what it was post-law change,” he wrote.

Strip searches were unpleasant but worked. Lawmakers scrapped them without ensuring the scanners could actually do the job. And the same Department of Health that insisted COVID vaccines stopped transmission isn’t exactly a reliable authority on radiation safety.

Tyler Durden Wed, 03/26/2025 - 22:10

Supreme Court Upholds Biden-Era 'Ghost Gun' Regulation

Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The Supreme Court voted 7–2 on March 26 to uphold the Biden administration’s rule regulating so-called ghost guns that can be assembled at home.

A person holds a 3D-printed ghost gun during a statewide gun buyback event held by the office of the New York State Attorney General in the Brooklyn borough of New York on April 29, 2023. Yuki Iwamura/AFP via Getty Images

The majority opinion in Bondi v. VanDerStok was written by Justice Neil Gorsuch.

Gorsuch was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, along with Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Sotomayor, Jackson, and Kavanaugh each filed concurring opinions.

Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito each filed dissenting opinions.

In October 2023, the Supreme Court reinstated the rule, which lower courts had blocked.

“Ghost gun” is a pejorative term used by gun control advocates to describe a homemade firearm that lacks a serial number and therefore can’t be tracked by law enforcement.

Although some states regulate homemade guns, gun control groups have been trying for years to ban or regulate homemade guns at the federal level but have failed to persuade the U.S. Congress to act.

Then-President Joe Biden defended the rule, claiming that privately made guns, which are often made with gun kits, are the “weapons of choice for many criminals.”

The government’s “frame or receiver” rule dates to April 2022. It requires individuals who assemble homemade firearms to add serial numbers to them. The rule also mandates background checks for consumers who buy gun-assembly kits from dealers.

Pieces of guns that are shipped are nonetheless guns subject to existing laws, the government argued.

In the majority opinion, Gorsuch wrote that the Gun Control Act of 1968 allows the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) to regulate “some weapon parts kits and unfinished frames or receivers, including those we have discussed.”

After displaying a photograph of gun kit components supplied by seller Polymer80, Gorsuch wrote, “Plainly, the finished ‘Buy Build Shoot’ kit is an instrument of combat. No one would confuse the semiautomatic pistol pictured above with a tool or a toy.”

Tyler Durden Wed, 03/26/2025 - 21:45

Israel 'On The Brink Of Civil War' As Judicial Overhaul Bill Progresses

Several ultra-controversial issues have come to a head in Israel this week, sparking more huge protests outside the country's Knesset and in various locations.

Israel's Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz is warning alongside former Israeli army Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, and former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that Israel is on the brink of civil war.

JPost/Flash90

The mounting crisis was sparked by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's dismissing Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar. "It’s true that there are many security challenges from abroad, but Israel’s security is at risk because of the internal division," Gantz said at the start of the week.

There are moves to also dismiss Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara by Netanyahu after a 'no confidence' vote by the cabinet. This has outraged opposition parties and much of the population.

Alongside this, the deeply divisive judicial appointments bill will soon be voted on:

National Unity chair Benny Gantz met earlier today with Justice Minister Yariv Levin in a last-ditch attempt to convince him to abandon a highly controversial piece of legislation that will greatly increase political control over the judicial appointments process.

The meeting was held ahead of the final two readings in the Knesset plenum needed for the legislation’s passage.

During the meeting, Gantz told Levin that he would be making a “mistake” by bringing the legislation for final votes, Channel 12 reports, while Ynet says he warned Levin that Israel is on “the brink of a civil war.”

Gantz is pleading for Netanyahu to halt the legislation from progressing. "I’m appealing to you as someone who bears the responsibility of acting on behalf of all citizens of this country," he wrote to in a letter to the prime minister.

Thousands protest outside the Israeli Knesset ahead of a final voting on a law that would further politicize the selection of Supreme Court’ judges pic.twitter.com/Ip9WC6OtrF

— Guy Elster גיא אלסטר (@guyelster) March 26, 2025

"Our society is wounded and bleeding, divided in a way we have not seen since October 6 [2023]," Gantz said. "Fifty-nine of our brothers and sisters are still captive in Gaza, and our soldiers, from all political factions, are fighting on multiple fronts."

As a reminder, Netanyahu and his allies say the plan will restore a balance between the judicial and executive branches and rein in what they see as an interventionist court with liberal sympathies. But critics say the constellation of laws will remove the checks and balances in Israel’s democratic system and concentrate power in the hands of the governing coalition.

Amid all of this, families of kidnap victims are still leading protests demanding that a ceasefire and hostage exchange deal with Hamas get back on track.

Protesters outside the Knesset set up a mock “Qatari embassy” featuring multiple people in white robes fanning themselves with money as Arabic music plays in the background. One demonstrator uses ropes to control the arms of a person wearing a Benjamin Netanyahu mask pic.twitter.com/qMhiGYfBsy

— Sam Sokol (@SamuelSokol) March 26, 2025

But the Israeli military looks to escalate, with reports it is in the preparation stage for annexing parts of the Gaza Strip. The IDF is also staging war drills in the north, preparing for possibly more clashes with Hezbollah. If the judicial overhaul bill passes, demonstrations in the streets will likely explode to historic proportions. 

Tyler Durden Wed, 03/26/2025 - 21:20

Homeschooling And The Hypocrisy Of Illinois Politicians

By Ted Dabrowski and John Klinger of Wirepoints

Illinois politicians’ latest attempt to impose their will on homeschooling began with a single tragic story of one child’s abuse. Lawmakers took that case of parental neglect and twisted it, expanded on it, and turned it into an indictment of homeschooling in general. Now they want new legislation to control it.

Homeschooling risks truancy, they say. And abuse, educational neglect and poor accountability. That’s how lawmakers are fear-mongering about Illinois’ long-standing, hands-off approach to homeschooling in an attempt to gain more power over parents and children.

But if you know anything about Illinois’ public education system, you’ll recognize the rank hypocrisy immediately. Illinois schools are full of truancy, abuse, educational neglect and poor accountability. Yet lawmakers do little to nothing about that. Instead, they’ve turned their attention towards the last form of education they don’t control.

The bill at hand, House Bill 2827, would force homeschooling parents – and private schools – to annually submit a declaration form to their local school district, with the potential penalty of fines and even jail time if parents don’t comply. Among other items, the bill also requires administrative and curriculum standards.

The bottom line is, the proposed law is an infringement of the fundamental right of parents to make decisions concerning the care, custody, and control of their children (see the Supreme Court case Troxel v. Granville).

Yet Illinois State Rep. Terra Costa Howard, the lead sponsor of the legislation, justifies her bill by saying homeschooled children “lose daily contact with teachers and others who are mandated to report abuse and neglect.” That’s coming from someone who’s said and done nothing to address the source of the state’s biggest sexual abuse problem: Chicago Public Schools.

And State Rep. Michelle Mussman, another bill sponsor said, “We really are looking for a better way to capture the small, the very important subset of kids who are…missing an education or worse.” But Mussman and most Illinois legislators have done little to address the state’s own public school literacy collapse. Six out of every 10 children statewide are unable to read at grade level – that’s more than 1.1 million public school students.

Below we lay out the many hypocrisies of the homeschool bill supporters.

1. Rampant chronic absenteeism in public schools. Lawmakers’ concern about “truancy” in homeschooling falls flat considering they consistently allow up to a quarter of Illinois public school students to be “chronically absent” (10% or more missed school days in a year) each year. That’s based on data straight from the State Board of Education’s annual report card.

Chicago’s numbers are far worse – over 40% of CPS students were chronically absent in 2024. These kids are at risk of “academic and social problems” according to the State Board of Education.

Absenteeism skyrocketed during the covid years and has remained at elevated levels since. 

Many Illinois teachers also consistently fail to show up for class, again based on state education data. Over a third of all teachers statewide were considered “chronically absent” in 2024, meaning they missed 10 school days or more during the year. The National Bureau of Economic Research warns that student outcomes decrease significantly when teachers are absent for 10 days or more.

Who are lawmakers holding accountable for this? And why aren’t they holding themselves accountable?

2. Ongoing sexual abuse in schools. If legislators really cared about the abuse of children, they would shut down Chicago Public Schools immediately. The district has recorded nearly 1,000 allegations in the last couple of years, many of them severe cases of molestation and abuse.

Here are some examples from the CPS Inspector General in 2024:

Case No. 20-01345. “A security guard sexually abused a 16-year-old student for approximately five months. In his capacity as a security guard, he pulled the student out of class to have sex in various locations in the school, such as storage rooms and janitor closets. He also sexually assaulted the student in his car and his home.” 

Case No. 20-01530. “An intoxicated teacher groped an eleventh-grade student twice on the buttocks while at the school’s graduation. The student disclosed the teacher’s conduct to a staff member, who notified DCFS and the school’s then-principal. However, the principal failed to notify the Law Department of the allegations as required.”

Case No. 21-00326. “An employee of a vendor after-school program sexually assaulted an elementary school student at the student’s school on multiple occasions between 2014 and 2017, when the student was seven to ten years old. The student disclosed three separate incidents: one in which the vendor employee touched and rubbed the student’s genitals under their clothes, and two in which the vendor employee touched and rubbed the student’s buttocks under their clothes. The abuse took place in the school’s gym and cafeteria.”

Those are but a few of the 446 cases that range from misconduct and sexual harassment to nonsexual conduct that raises “the appearance of impropriety or possible grooming concerns.” 

Illinois lawmakers have known about the rampant cases of abuse since the Chicago Tribune first exposed the depth of CPS’ crisis in 2018. The district should be under the same extreme public and political pressure as the Catholic Church was when its own sex abuse scandals broke. Yet lawmakers have done little to nothing about it. 

3. Public school students are unable to read or do math. Lawmakers’ supposed concerns about homeschool parents failing to provide an education to their children is particularly laughable given the dismal state of public education in Illinois.

Illinois lawmakers haven’t made any serious attempt to restore literacy and numeracy – the long term data backs us up on that. Instead, all they’ve done is throw billions upon billions of dollars at the education system to no effect.

Overall, just 33% of all 8th-grade Illinois students scored proficient in reading on the 2024 Nation’s Report Card test. In math, it was just 32%.

The results for the state’s minority children were far worse. Just 16% reading and 9% math proficiency for blacks. For Hispanics, it was just 24% and 18%.

In many districts, kids are far, far away from proficiency. Take the Decatur Public Schools. There a full two-thirds of black third graders scored at the lowest possible level on the state IAR test in 2024. Most of those students are grade levels away from proficiency.

Then look at Decatur’s 11th graders. It’s the exact same thing: 69% were at the lowest level. These children have been abandoned by the system.

And not a single kid can read proficiently at all in some schools. Last year, Wirepoints analyzed report card data directly from the Illinois State Board of Education and found 67 schools across the state, enrolling over 11,500 students, where not a single child could do math at grade level. There were another 32 schools where zero children were proficient in reading.

4. Unhelpful teacher evaluations. And for those lawmakers so concerned about accountability, there’s the open question about why they’ve done nothing to fix the state board’s broken “accountability” metrics for teachers.

Despite all the failures we’ve tallied above, the system allows virtually every teacher in Illinois to be rated “excellent or proficient” year after year. It’s apparent that lawmakers don’t truly care about accountability. 

This homeschooling bill is an attempt by lawmakers to take over the last part of education that isn’t under their explicit control – and a way for the teachers unions to squash another form of competition. 

It’s hypocrisy, and government overreach, at its worst.

Tyler Durden Wed, 03/26/2025 - 20:55

"The Country's Largest COVID Fraud": Somali Immigrants Allegedly Stole $250 Million From Child Nutrition Program

Nearly all of the 70 people charged in a massive $250 million fraud case targeting federal child nutrition programs in Minnesota are Somali immigrants, according to the Washington Free Beacon.

Between March 2020 and January 2022, they allegedly stole funds meant for feeding children, funneled through a nonprofit called Feeding Our Future. So far, 37 have pleaded guilty, and 7 have been convicted; the rest await trial.

The scam involved fake meal counts, rosters, and invoices submitted to the Minnesota Department of Education. “Feeding Our Future” acted as a sponsor for daycares and other sites, making it easy to file false claims during the COVID-era program expansion.

Minnesota, home to about 100,000 Somali immigrants—mostly in the Twin Cities—has long attracted refugees with “some of America’s most generous welfare and charity programs,” according to journalist Kelly Riddell. She also quoted professor Ahamed Samatar, who said, “Minnesota is exceptional in so many ways but it’s the closest thing in the United States to a true social democratic state.”

The FBI’s Minneapolis office has also dealt with terror-related concerns in the community, which has seen recruitment by ISIS and al-Shabab.

Between 2020 and 2022, Aimee Bock and a group of mostly Somali immigrants stole $250 million in federal nutrition funds through a scheme centered on the nonprofit Feeding Our Future. The group submitted fake meal counts and rosters to the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE), which had loosened oversight under COVID “waivers.” In 2021 alone, Feeding Our Future funneled nearly $200 million to sham sites and vendors.

The Washington Free Beacon says that despite red flags, MDE backed off after accusations of racism. But in April 2021, a whistleblower tipped off the FBI. Surveillance footage later revealed empty food sites that supposedly fed thousands daily. The scheme collapsed in January 2022 when federal agents conducted Minnesota’s largest-ever fraud raid.

Bock, Feeding Our Future’s founder, certified inflated claims from over 250 sites. Though she pocketed $1.9 million, many of her co-conspirators spent millions on luxury items and properties across the U.S., Turkey, and Kenya. “The fraud in this case is gross, disgusting, and despicable,” the report states.

Bock’s fake nonprofit included a board of unaware bartenders and a small-engine mechanic. “Yeah, big shoes,” one deadpanned in court when shown his name atop an organizational chart. The fraud ran so deep that 21 sites on a 1.8-mile stretch of Minneapolis’s Lake Street claimed to serve as many children as the city’s public schools.

Bock and accomplice Salim Said—whose restaurant, Safari, jumped from $600,000 annual revenue to “serving” 5,000 kids daily—were convicted on all 28 counts in just five hours. Said alone claimed over 3.9 million meals and took in $5.5 million.

Though most Somali defendants eagerly joined in, one voice stood out: Abdihakim Osman Nur, who once exposed Rep. Ilhan Omar’s fraudulent marriage, condemned the lavish corruption on Facebook. He posted a video describing gold trays gifted at a Feeding Our Future staffer’s wedding: “We cannot close our eyes to such corruption... when we only have a few bad apples.”

Yet state officials stayed silent. Gov. Tim Walz later claimed, “we caught it very early,” but ignored follow-up questions. Attorney General Keith Ellison, who once said, “I know a scam when I see one,” also declined to comment.

At the post-trial press conference, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson rightly called the case “the shame of Minnesota.” The prosecutors who brought it down, he added, are “the pride of Minnesota.

Tyler Durden Wed, 03/26/2025 - 20:30

Anti-Trump Judge Boasberg Assigned To Lefty Lawfare Group's 'SignalGate' Suit

Authored by Debra Heine via American Greatness,

The activist federal judge who tried to thwart the Trump administration’s deportation flights to El Salvador earlier this month has been assigned to a left-wing lawfare group’s lawsuit related to the “SignalGate” nontroversy.

Embattled U.S. District Judge James Boasberg will handle the lawfare case alleging that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other Trump officials violated record retention laws.

Specifically, the lawsuit alleges that the officials’ use of an encrypted app that allows messages about government business to be erased is a violation of the Federal Records Act.

But as  CIA Director John Ratcliffe explained in his testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee Tuesday, the use of Signal among intelligence officials is permissible, routine, and precedes the current administration.

Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, was somehow included in a Signal group chat discussing plans about a forthcoming attack on Houthis in Yemen. Goldberg publicized the chat in the Atlantic on Monday, withholding details purportedly over national security concerns.

After multiple Trump officials denied that any “classified materials” or “war plans” were discussed, the Atlantic on Wednesday published the entire group chat, showing that Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth had posted the “exact times American aircraft were taking off for Yemen” 31 minutes before the first warplanes launched.

Hegseth hit back with a statement on X, Wednesday, saying: 

“So, let me get this straight. The Atlantic released the so-called “war plans” and those ‘plans’ include: No names. No targets. No locations. No units. No routes. No sources. No methods. And no classified information. Those are some really shitty war plans. This only proves one thing: Jeff Goldberg has never seen a war plan or an “attack plan” (as he now calls it). Not even close.”

The Defense Sec added: 

“As I type this, my team and I are traveling the INDOPACOM region, meeting w/ Commanders (the guys who make REAL “war plans”) and talking to troops. We will continue to do our job, while the media does what it does best: peddle hoaxes.”

The lawsuit against Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent was brought by the activist litigation group “American Oversight.”

Although frequently referred to as a “nonpartisan watchdog group” in the media,  American Oversight was launched in March 2017 specifically to conduct lawfare against President Trump during his first term in office, according to Influence Watch.

The group formed shortly after a now infamous confab took place at a Florida resort, where more than 100 “liberal mega-donors” met to hear Media Matters founder and Clinton-aligned operative David Brock proposed a lawfare operation to produce a “steady stream of open records requests” and lawsuits against Trump with the ultimate goal of defeating him in 2020 or “through impeachment.”

AO claims to be “the top Freedom of Information Act litigator investigating the Trump administration,” with more than 1000 open records requests filed in 2018 – an average of four requests made every business day. In addition, it reports 56 lawsuits filed during the year (more than one per week). The website also provides searchable databases for both the open records documents and the overall investigations to which those documents pertain.

President Trump clashed with Boasberg last week over the judge’s decision to stop flights deporting alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act.

Of those deported, 101 were TdA Venezuelans, 21 were Salvadoran MS-13 gang members, and two were MS-13 ringleaders and “special cases” for El Salvador, according to Fox News. Their offenses reportedly include “kidnapping, sexual abuse of a child, aggravated assault, prostitution, robbery and aggravated assault of a police officer.”

Judge Boasberg, an Obama appointee and key Russia hoax player, ordered an immediate stop to the deportations so he could have more time to consider whether Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act was legal. Incredibly, the judge ordered planes that were already in the air to turn back to the United States.

The next morning, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele posted on X, “Oopsie … Too late,” with a laughing emoji.

The Trump administration’s refusal to comply with the judge’s order prompted a sharp response by Boasberg, who demanded answers. The matter is now being played out in the courts.

On Truth Social, Trump called for Boasberg’s impeachment, calling him a “Radical Left Lunatic of a Judge, a troublemaker and agitator who was sadly appointed by Barack Hussein Obama.”

“This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges’ I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!!” Trump wrote on March 18.

Trump’s outburst prompted a rare rebuke from Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts, who stated, “impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision.”

Tyler Durden Wed, 03/26/2025 - 20:05

Five Reasons Why Eliminating The Department Of Education Is A Good Thing

The Department of Education, much like USAID, is treated as if it's a sacrosanct charity instead of a government institution subject to scrutiny and regulation.  The message surrounding government agencies and federal employees is generally unhinged these days; when did these people suddenly become saints and martyrs?  Most of them are, in fact, parasites feeding on taxpayer dollars and they serve no purpose.

To be sure, progressives often elevate bureaucracy in their minds to a sanctified level.  The Shadow Government is their god and the bureaucrats slithering through the dimly lit corridors of unaccountable power are treated like high priests.  The system is worshiped because it is at war with America's foundations.  The left wants the west to die, and the bureaucracy is more than happy to accommodate while filling their pockets with easy cash. 

The Department of Education (ED) is particularly beloved by the political left because it is the mechanism by which public schooling is twisted into a propaganda machine.  The ED is the key to everything; in cooperation with teachers and teachers unions they are creating the next generation of woke adherents, and your kids are the target.  

But beyond the issue of political indoctrination there's the obvious problem of obligation versus outcome - What does the ED actually do to fulfill its supposed duties?  In truth, it does absolutely nothing.  Lets examine five reasons why the Department of Education is a complete failure as an agency and why it deserves to be eliminated.

The More Money The ED Receives The Less Education American Students Get

In 2010 the ED's budget was $94 billion, by 2024 it had ballooned to $268 billion (a 160% increase).  But what are US taxpayers getting for this massive chunk of change they are spending annually?  National testing averages in reading and math continue to decline dramatically in the past decade.  Scores barely eek out gains on testing results from the 1970s before the ED was founded.  

      

In other words, the more money Americans spend on the ED, the worse the results get.  Despite the agency enjoying a budget that surpasses the GDP of many countries, the US is 28th in the world for math, 24th in the world for science according to PISA results for high school age students.  It is also rated 36th in global literacy rankings. For the richest country in the world with the largest education budget in the world, this is abysmal.

The ED Has Even Failed To Help Minorities Despite DEI Programs

Some people argue that minority demographics (except Asians) consistently test lower and they are dragging US scores down compared to the rest of the developed world.  This is a fair point, however, with the amount of funding and fanfare paid to DEI by the Department of Education in recent years you would think those scores would be going up.  They haven't.  More minorities than ever are getting college degrees but their testing scores continue to plummet. 

In inner city schools where minorities are the majority, the lack of effective education is stark.  In urban areas of Illinois, for example, at least 30 schools do not have a single student that can pass a reading proficiency exam. 

If the Department of Education's real intention was to create "equity" for minorities in public schools, they have failed miserably.

Woke Propaganda And DEI Ideology In Schools

The ED had at least $600 million allotted for DEI and Critical Race theory programs for teachers, not to mention extensive programs for LGBT and gender studies.  Its not a coincidence that public schools across the nation started allowing gender ideology to invade the classroom all at the same time.  The Department of Education was a big part of the indoctrination push.  Incentivizing teachers and school districts with extra federal cash certainly helped things along.

Until the Supreme Court finally blocked "race conscious" admissions in colleges due to discrimination against Asians and Whites, the ED was highly active in promoting DEI based campuses.  The agency specifically encouraged equity based student admissions, allowing underqualified applicants access to top universities while rejecting high achieving applicants because of their race.

With the lowest common denominator getting easy access, it's no surprise that American colleges are churning out far less desirable graduates and less workers with STEM degrees.  

The ED Has Driven Secondary Education Costs Into The Stratosphere

In 2024 the Department of Education spent around $160 billion on federal student aid grants and loans.  This might sound like a humanitarian effort that would expand America's professional labor base, but that's not the case.  In-demand career fields like those in STEM are desperate for qualified graduates.  Meanwhile, all that easy government cash has inflated college tuition costs beyond reckoning.

There is a direct correlation and causation between the ED's increased grant programs and the rising costs of a college education.  

The ED Consistently Loses Money

For years, the ED vastly underestimated the true cost of the federal Direct Loan program. Between 1997 and 2021, ED expected these loans to generate more than $100 billion in government revenue.  Researchers and watchdogs have warned about the flaws in ED’s budget model for years - the agency did nothing to address these concerns. 

Federal student loans issued during this period cost taxpayers $200 billion, meaning ED’s faulty budgeting was off by more than $10 billion a year on average according to a GAO report in 2022. 

ED’s budget is consistently wrong due to incorrect assumptions about: 

The number of borrowers who would choose to enroll in Income-Driven Repayment (IDR).

The income growth for borrowers repaying loans through IDR.    

The probability that borrowers would default on their loans.    

The effects of new programs enacted by Congress and ED

Like most federal agencies the ED only serves to lose money while never actually accomplishing its supposed purpose.  It is a failure by every metric and should be shut down forever.  When an institution bombs this hard for this long, there's no excuse.  The political left appeals to emotion by painting a picture of a dystopian future filled with uneducated American children without the guiding hand of the Department of Education, but the opposite is true.  They have already created an uneducated America, and now its time to remedy the problem.

 

Tyler Durden Wed, 03/26/2025 - 19:40

Homeland Security Secretary Confirms Plans To Eliminate FEMA

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem said during a Cabinet meeting this week that she would eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

While providing a report on the border and Coast Guard operations, Noem said, “We’re going to eliminate FEMA.” 

She didn’t provide more details.

“That’s great. Great job,” President Donald Trump said in response to Noem’s remarks during the meeting.

Earlier this year, Trump suggested in public remarks that he may dissolve the emergency management agency—or at least overhaul it.

“I’ll also be signing an executive order to begin the process of fundamentally reforming and overhauling FEMA, or maybe getting rid of FEMA. I think, frankly, FEMA’s not good,” Trump said in January.

He mentioned it again when he visited the aftermath of wildfires in Los Angeles in January, saying: 

“I say you don’t need FEMA, you need a good state government. FEMA is a very expensive, in my opinion, mostly failed situation.”

After Trump said he wanted to overhaul or scrap FEMA, the agency’s acting head, Cameron Hamilton, wrote to staff and assured them that “FEMA is a critical agency which performs an essential mission in support of our national security.” Hamilton is a former Navy SEAL whom Trump appointed to temporarily lead the agency.

On March 19, Trump signed an order that seeks to hand over responsibility to state and local governments to deal with natural disasters or cyberattacks.

"Federal policy must rightly recognize that preparedness is most effectively owned and managed at the state, local, and even individual levels, supported by a competent, accessible, and efficient federal government,” the order said. 

“Citizens are the immediate beneficiaries of sound local decisions and investments designed to address risks, including cyberattacks, wildfires, hurricanes, and space weather.”

This order is designed to provide more power to “state, local, and individual” preparation efforts and will bring “common sense into infrastructure prioritization and strategic investments through risk-informed decisions that make our infrastructure, communities, and economy resilient to global and dynamic threats and hazards.”

FEMA has a workforce of 20,000 staffers that can increase to more than 50,000 active members during disasters, according to the agency website. The agency was officially created in 1979 and was placed under DHS in 2004.

Aside from FEMA, federal agencies have fired nearly 25,000 newer workers, officials said in court filings last week.

Eighteen agencies, including the Department of Agriculture, started terminating workers after Trump took office, and the Office of Personnel Management directed officials to fire probationary workers who were not critical to agency missions. Many did not disclose the number of workers who were terminated.

The Epoch Times contacted DHS for comment on March 26.

Tyler Durden Wed, 03/26/2025 - 19:15

Appeals Court Refuses To Lift Judge Boasberg's Block On Trump Deportations

With a 2-1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has denied President Donald Trump’s request to halt US District Judge James Boasberg's decision that blocked his proclamation applying the Alien Enemies Act to support deportations of suspected members of a Venezuelan gang.

The Justice Department had urged the three-judge panel on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to immediately block Boasberg’s order, casting it as an intrusion on the president’s executive authority over national security.

Judges Karen Henderson and Patricia Millett opposed the administration’s request while Judge Justin Walker dissented.

In a concurrence, Henderson said that:

“the Executive’s burdens are comparatively modest compared to the plaintiffs’. Lifting the injunctions risks exiling plaintiffs to a land that is not their country of origin.”

Millett, meanwhile, praised the district court’s handling of the case and said:

“there is neither jurisdiction nor reason for this court to interfere at this very preliminary stage or to allow the government to singlehandedly moot the Plaintiffs’ claims by immediately removing them beyond the reach of their lawyers or the court.”

Walker’s dissent stated that:

“the government has ... shown that the district court’s orders threaten irreparable harm to delicate negotiations with foreign powers on matters concerning national security.”

Republicans have criticized Boasberg as allegedly overstepping his power by questioning President Donald Trump's national security authority.

The Trump administration could now seek emergency review from the Supreme Court, but the case is meanwhile progressing in Boasberg’s court.

Tyler Durden Wed, 03/26/2025 - 17:20

President Trump Unleashes 25% Tariffs On Foreign-Made Auto Imports

Update (1600ET): President Trump has announced a 25% tariff on all cars not made in the US.

“This will continue to spur growth,” Trump told reporters.

Trump confirmed that these new tariffs are in addition to existing tariffs and are expected to result in $100 billion in revenues.

To underscore his seriousness, Trump said, “This is permanent.”

In addition to the tariffs, Trump discussed his plan to allow Americans to deduct interest payments on cars that are made in America.

If the car is built in the US, there will be no tariffs.

"We are going to charge countries for doing business in our country and taking our jobs, taking our wealth, taking a lot of things that they have been taking over the years."

GM and Ford shares are tumbling further on the news...

European and Canadian officials have already thrown their teddy-bears out of the stroller.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford (who folded like broken deckchair on his last threat to hike electricity costs to Americans), warned that:

...he'll "encourage Carney to target US automobiles... and will inflict as much trade pain as possible."

Canadian PM Mark Carney commented that US tariffs are a "direct attack" on Canadian auto workers, adding that the Trump tariffs "will hurt us."

"We will defend our workers, our companies, and our country."

European Commission Chief Ursula von der Leyen immediately posted her disappointment on X:

I deeply regret the US decision to impose tariffs on European automotive exports.
 
The automotive industry is a driver of innovation, competitiveness, and high quality jobs, through deeply integrated supply chains on both sides of the Atlantic.
 
As I have said before, tariffs are taxes – bad for businesses, worse for consumers equally in the US and the European Union.
 
We will now assess this announcement, together with other measures the US is envisaging in the next days.
 
The EU will continue to seek negotiated solutions, while safeguarding its economic interests.
 
As a major trading power and a strong community of 27 Member States, we will jointly protect our workers, businesses and consumers across our European Union.

"Our automobile industry will flourish like it's never flourished before," Trump commented, seemingly unflapped by the possibility of retaliation.

There's a lot of nations to upset...

The auto tariffs are part of a broader reshaping of global relations by Trump, who plans to impose what he calls “reciprocal” taxes on April 2 that would match the tariffs, sales taxes charged by other nations.

*  *  *

Update (1315ET): White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt just confirmed that President Trump will hold a press conference at 4pmET today to announce auto tariffs.

The level and scope of the auto tariffs are not clear, including what, if any, exemptions would be included or considered.

It’s also unclear if the tariffs would go into effect immediately or over time, and whether they would hit finished vehicles or also auto parts.

*  *  *

Following President Trump's comments earlier in the week that he would detail the scale of auto levies in the coming days, Bloomberg reports that - citing the usual people familiar with the matter - the Trump administration is readying an announcement on auto tariffs as soon as today.

Bloomberg adds that the people shared the timing of the expected announcement on condition of anonymity, to discuss plans not yet made public. 

One of the people, though, cautioned that the president’s plans could still shift.

This is a move that would escalate Trump's fight with global trading partners ahead of a broader tariff push next week.

The broad market was already lower but accelerated on the report...

Treasury yields also sank...

The president has said the levies will help spur growth in the domestic auto sector and force companies to move more production to the US.

The move risks disrupting operations for North American automakers, who rely on highly integrated chains across the US, Mexico and Canada; and Ford and GM shares are falling on the report.

Minutes after Bloomberg's report, the following headlines hit: 

• *GM CEO MARY BARRA TO MEET TRUMP ADMIN. OVER TARIFFS: FREE PRESS

• *FORD CHAIR BILL FORD TO MEET TRUMP ADMIN THIS WEEK: FREE PRESS

The level and scope of the auto tariffs are not clear, including what, if any, exemptions would be included or considered. It’s also unclear if the tariffs would go into effect immediately or over time.

Tyler Durden Wed, 03/26/2025 - 17:15

Judge Reverses Decision, Says Unions Can Sue Over Federal Worker Firings

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

Unions representing federal workers can sue the Trump administration over its mass terminations, as opposed to being restricted to bringing challenges to federal labor boards, a judge said on March 24.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup said that the boards would not be able to adjudicate the unions’ claims that the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) violated the U.S. Constitution’s separation of powers doctrine.

“In sum, but for district court jurisdiction, the public-sector unions will be precluded from judicial recourse and relief even for their separation-of-powers claim,” Alsup said in the ruling.

The American Federation of Government Employees and other unions sued the administration in February over OPM directives sent to agency heads, which aimed to further President Donald Trump’s goal of reducing the federal workforce and said agencies should fire newer employees who were not deemed critical to the mission of each agency.

Alsup concluded on Feb. 27 that OPM lacked authority to hire or fire any employees outside of the office but also ruled that while he had jurisdiction over newly fired workers, unions must take their complaints to federal labor boards rather than the courts.

In the new order, Alsup said he was wrong, breaking from three recent rulings in other cases.

The claims brought by the unions, including that OPM violated the separation of powers by directing other agencies to terminate their employees, are standard constitutional law questions that are considered by the courts, the judge said.

The expertise of the Federal Labor Relations Authority and the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board would not help resolve the claims that revolve around OPM’s authority and do not directly implicate the Civil Service Reform Act, which outlines the system for reviewing terminations and other personnel action against federal employees, according to the ruling.

Three other U.S. district judges have found that similar cases should go before a federal board, but those cases are different in part because they challenged separate aspects of the mass terminations, such as Trump’s order to agencies to carry out firings through plans called reductions-in-force, Alsup said.

The judge ordered parties in the case, including the government, to file responses to his order by March 28.

The American Federation of Government Employees and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, plaintiffs in the case, did not respond to requests for comment. The U.S. Department of Justice did not return an inquiry.

Alsup and another judge recently ordered the government to reinstate nearly 25,000 newer workers whom officials had fired across 18 agencies. An appeals court upheld Alsup’s order, prompting the administration to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Justices have not yet weighed in on the matter.

Tyler Durden Wed, 03/26/2025 - 17:00

Trump Vows To Probe Ashli Babbitt Homicide, Consider Comp Fund For Pardoned J6ers

President Trump on Tuesday vowed that he would bring new scrutiny to the Department of Justice's handling of the killing of Ashli Babbitt by a Capitol police officer during the Jan 6, 2021 riot, and to explore the possibility of a compensation fund for the 1,500 Capitol riot defendants he pardoned.   

Trump's promises came in a Roosevelt Room interview with Newsmax's Greg Kelly. When Kelly asked Trump about the DOJ continuing to mount a defense against a $30 million wrongful death claim filed by Babbitt's husband, Trump said he wasn't aware of it but would look into the matter: 

"Well, I'll look into that. I mean, you're just telling me that for the first time, I haven't heard that. I'm a big fan of Ashli Babbitt. And Ashli Babbitt was a really good person who was a big MAGA fan, Trump fan. And she was innocently standing there; they even say trying to sort of hold back the crowd. And a man did something to her that was unthinkable when he shot her. And I think it's a disgrace. I'm going to look into that. I did not know that."

Unarmed and posing no threat of death or serious harm, Babbitt was shot to death by Capitol Police on Jan. 6 (via Stark Realities)

Babbitt was shot and killed by US Capitol Police (USCP) Lieutenant Michael Byrd as she attempted to climb through a broken window that was part of an interior doorway close to the House chamber. Though the unarmed, 5'2", 115-pound Babbitt posed no imminent threat of inflicting death or serious injury as she awkwardly navigated the narrow space -- with a furniture barricade still ahead of her --  Boyd opted against using any type of nonlethal force, and instead shot her from an ambush position, killing her with a bullet that perforated her trachea and lung. 

While it's been little-publicized by major media or leftists who screech that Babbitt "got what she deserved," Byrd had some serious disciplinary issues before Jan. 6, with some of the incidents involving the irresponsible handling and even firing of his weapon.  

Despite the damning facts of the case, leftists in and out of media have treated Byrd as a hero for fending off a nonexistent "insurrection." He was not only officially cleared of wrongdoing, but promoted to the rank of captain in 2023. In Tuesday's interview, Kelly also asked Trump how he felt about Byrd still being on duty, with a pay raise and higher rank. The president replied: 

"I think it's a disgrace. I'm going to take a look at it. I'm going to look at that, too. His reputation was ... I won't even say; let's find out about his reputation. We're going to find out. But I watched that and I saw that. And by the way, she was killed, but nobody else was killed."

Noting that the 1,500 Jan 6 defendants pardoned by Trump had "lost opportunity, lost income," Kelly asked Trump if there was any plan in the works to compensate Jan 6ers for their excessively harsh treatment.  "There's talk about that," said Trump. "A lot of the people that are in the government now talk about it, because a lot of the people in government really like that group of people. They were patriots as far as I was concerned...they were treated very unfairly.”

President Trump addresses the latest on the case of Ashli Babbitt, the Trump supporter who was shot and killed at the Capitol on Jan 6, 2021, rips the police shooting, the overall treatment of now-pardoned defendants, and the actions of the former House J6 select committee. pic.twitter.com/kPXPyGVuJT

— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) March 26, 2025

Given how the left went bonkers over Trump's pardons, the reaction to a reparations package for Jan 6ers would be a sight to behold. 

Tyler Durden Wed, 03/26/2025 - 16:40

"We've Created A Class Of People Who Are Effectively Grifters" - Rubino Rages At US Govt's "Big Money-Laundering Operation"

Via Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com,

Analyst and financial writer John Rubino warned last October that “Chaos is Coming.”  

With exploding Tesla dealerships, mass deportations of violent gangs, DOGE uncovering massive fraud and waste, and an out-of-control Leftist judiciary trying to stop President Trump at every turn, you could say chaos is here.  

Rubino contends it’s not going away anytime soon as government grifters are going to try to keep the cash flowing.   Now, AG Pam Bondi says her office is going after the fraudsters ripping off America. Rubino explains,

“We are finding out that the federal government is a big money laundering operation.  There are so many different ways and so many different avenues that take cash from taxpayers or newly created cash . . . and it basically funnels it to political operatives, political class and the ‘expert’ class all around the world...

We have created this class of people who are effectively grifters . . . because they don’t do anything worthwhile at all.  Do you think that think-tanks produce anything of value, or lobbyists or Washington law firms or regulators?  The regulator is basically on a long job interview for the company you are regulating.  

You prove you are a team player and then Pfizer hires you for 10 times your FDA salary.  So, everywhere you look it’s a form of money laundering.”

So, now interest payments are spiraling to infinity with massive amounts of debt and currency creation.  Rubino says, “We have hit the death spiral point for the dollar and the other big fiat currencies, which means the cost to maintain this debt starts to spiral out of control and people lose faith in the currency or the currency collapses or you have a currency reset..."

" What is really interesting about the Trump Administration is it contains a lot of gold bugs...

There is a decent chance of instead of having this gigantic collapse because the dollar is basically evaporating, that this government will be smart enough to do the monetary reset.  Go back to a gold standard . . . go back to some sort of commodity base standard where we peg the dollar to something that is real and cannot be created in infinite quantities on a printing press.  It could be we do that without insane amounts of pain and stress, but it would still be painful.  Anybody who has dollars will watch those dollars be devalued dramatically.”

In this scenario, the dollar sinks in value.  What happens to gold?  Rubino says, 

“Everybody who runs the numbers says gold has to be $10,000 per ounce at a minimum and maybe much higher.  Gold has to go way up in price in a currency reset. . . . So, your gold becomes much more valuable, and your silver gets pulled along by gold and goes up by some multiple of gold’s percentage gains.  If gold goes up three times, silver will go up five to ten times.”

Rubino thinks Europe is headed for war with Russia or civil war.  Either way, the Euro will not survive.  Rubino says the domestic violence will continue here in America but thinks the Deep State won’t stop President Trump’s agenda.  Rubino also says everybody should concentrate on owning real things such as farm land, gold, silver and a good vehicle.  Rubino also says some emergency food and a garden are good ideas too.

There is much more in the 58-minute interview.

Join Greg Hunter as he goes One-on-One with financial writer John Rubino of the popular site called Rubino.Substack.com for 3.25.25.

*  *  *

To Donate to USAWatchdog.com Click Here

John Rubino is a prolific financial writer, and you can see some of his work for free at Rubino.Substack.com

Tyler Durden Wed, 03/26/2025 - 16:20

RFK Jr. Is Pushing Big Pharma Ad Ban - And Corporate Media Is Panicking

Authored by Kyle Becker via relentless,

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Donald Trump’s Health and Human Services Secretary, is pushing a plan to ban pharmaceutical ads from television. He’s right to push for it—and not just because the U.S. is one of only two countries on earth that allows such advertising (the other being New Zealand).

America’s health system isn’t just flawed; it’s harming public health, distorting journalism, and fueling Big Pharma’s malignant influence over our daily lives.

Let’s start with the obvious: TV drug ads aren’t designed to inform—they’re designed to manipulate. The formula is always the same. Cue soft lighting and sappy piano music. A sad, listless person pops a pill and suddenly life is vibrant again. They’re running through fields, laughing with family, walking dogs across idyllic bridges.

Then, in a breathless voiceover, the side effects come tumbling out like a legal disclaimer roulette wheel—stroke, heart failure, suicidal thoughts. The goal? Make viewers want a drug before they even talk to their doctor. It’s emotional coercion dressed up as health education.

This completely inverts how medicine is supposed to work. Health care decisions should be made inside the exam room, not in a 60-second marketing spot. Patients should go to their doctors with symptoms, and those doctors—armed with clinical training and knowledge of the patient’s full health profile—should decide whether a drug is even necessary.

Many issues could be better addressed through lifestyle changes, diet, supplements, or preventative care. But instead, America has normalized a pill-for-everything culture, supercharged by the fact that doctors are often nudged by patients demanding whatever drug they saw advertised last night during a commercial break.

This isn’t just bad medicine—it’s dangerous. And it’s no accident.

Big Pharma isn’t spending billions on advertising because it cares about your health. It’s doing it because the return on investment is enormous. Studies estimate the ROI on direct-to-consumer (DTC) drug ads ranges from 100% to 500%, depending on the drug. In 2025 alone, pharmaceutical companies are projected to spend over $5 billion on national linear TV ads, according to iSpot.tv. That number balloons even higher when you include digital and streaming. Just a handful of blockbuster drugs—like Skyrizi, Jardiance, and Ozempic—are burning through tens of millions in TV ads every month.

This revenue isn’t just padding Big Pharma’s pockets—it’s quietly buying influence in the media. Nearly 31% of ad minutes on major nightly news broadcasts in 2024 came from pharmaceutical brands. That means a huge portion of media budgets depend on the very companies they should be holding accountable. And surprise, surprise: when Big Pharma misleads the public, many news outlets are either silent or hesitant to report critically. The financial conflict of interest is baked in.

We saw the worst-case version of this during the COVID-19 pandemic. The novel mRNA shots—rushed to market under emergency use—were sold to the public as miracle solutions. Government officials and media outlets claimed these vaccines would "stop infection," "prevent death entirely," and "end the pandemic." Younger, healthy individuals were told they needed them for everyone’s safety, despite already low statistical risk. None of these claims held up. As the data evolved, we learned the vaccines offered some reduction in severe disease, but not sterilizing immunity. Yet the media rarely corrected course.

Why would they? Pharma ads were paying the bills. Meanwhile, federal workers were mandated—and many private sector employees coerced—into getting injections under false pretenses. Billions of dollars flowed to Big Pharma. The American public was misled.

This pattern of deception is not new. Pfizer alone has paid billions in legal penalties over the years for unethical marketing, off-label promotion, and other violations. The most infamous: a $2.3 billion settlement in 2009—the largest health care fraud settlement in U.S. history at the time. Yet companies like Pfizer, AbbVie, and Johnson & Johnson still enjoy a polished image on TV, thanks in part to relentless ad spending and regulatory leniency.

RFK Jr.’s plan, while legally uphill, is not without precedent. In 1970, President Nixon signed the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act, which banned tobacco ads from TV and radio. Cigarettes were legal, yet too dangerous to promote on air. The same principle should apply here. Just because a drug is FDA-approved doesn’t mean it should be marketed like soda. Approval doesn’t equal infallibility—just ask anyone who took Vioxx or OxyContin.

Critics, including the Wall Street Journal, have framed RFK’s proposal as a personal vendetta. That’s both lazy and misleading. In reality, there’s wide bipartisan and public support for reining in pharma ads. The American Medical Association called for a ban back in 2015. A STAT/Harvard poll found that 57% of Americans support banning TV drug ads. Even hosts on CNBC—hardly anti-business—agreed the ads are unnecessary. “Don’t you think doctors should prescribe it if you need it?” asked Joe Kernen. Exactly.

The pharmaceutical industry’s defenders like to invoke the First Amendment, claiming that banning ads would be unconstitutional. But commercial speech does not enjoy absolute protection. Under the Central Hudson test, the government can regulate ads if it has a substantial interest, the regulation directly advances that interest, and the restriction is narrowly tailored. Protecting public health from misleading pharmaceutical marketing clears all three hurdles. Even if a full ban doesn’t survive, tighter restrictions—like banning ads for certain drug classes, or requiring full price transparency—could pass muster.

More importantly, even the threat of a ban could pressure drugmakers to change course voluntarily. They did it before in 2008, when criticism led to updated self-regulatory guidelines. If Kennedy’s push forces them to rethink their practices, that alone is a win.

Pharma companies will no doubt fight this tooth and nail. But that’s not a reason to back down—it’s a reason to press harder. We’ve allowed an industry with an immense profit motive to shape our health decisions for too long. The result? A country drowning in prescriptions, mired in chronic disease, and confused about who to trust.

Enough is enough. RFK Jr.’s proposal to kick drug ads off TV isn’t radical—it’s responsible. And it’s long overdue.

~~~ KB

Tyler Durden Wed, 03/26/2025 - 15:40

Four Missing US Army Troops In Lithuania Found Dead: NATO

An unusual and alrming headline is emerging out Europe, as a major search was underway since yesterday for four US Army soldiers who had gone missing in Lithuania. The Associated Press in a breaking headline is now reporting they are dead:

NATO CHIEF SAYS 4 MISSING US SOLDIERS WERE KILLED: AP

The incident of the missing personnel and military search operation was first reported by Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT and subsequently picked up in European media. They first disappeared on Tuesday, along with a military vehicle, and belonged to the US Army's 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division.

Scene at Belarusian border, via LRT

"A possible scene has now been identified, and a search and rescue operation is underway," the Lithuanian military said in a statement hours prior to the announcement of their deaths.

The troops had been undergoing tactical training at the time the went missing. According to The Guardian:

The Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT reported that four US soldiers and a vehicle were reported missing on Tuesday afternoon during an exercise at the General Silvestras Žukauskas training ground in Pabradė, a town located less than 10km (6 miles) from the border with Belarus.

The Belarus angle and the proximity of the border could be alarming, given the US essentially considers it an 'enemy' state given its support to the Russian side of the Ukraine war.

"A search operation is currently under way, involving military personnel, rescue services, and firefighters. Lithuanian police also have launched an investigation," US state-funded RFERL writes. According to further statements and details:

Lithuanian officials have given few details, with Gintautas Ciunis, a military spokesman, confirming only that "these are foreign soldiers."

US Army Europe and Africa on March 26 confirmed that the soldiers had gone missing, saying in a statement that they were "conducting scheduled tactical training at the time of the incident."

“I would like to personally thank the Lithuanian Armed Forces and first responders who quickly came to our aid in our search operations,” said Lt. Gen. Charles Costanza, the V Corps commanding general.

Via BBC

Lithuania has been a NATO member since 2004, and is one of the Baltic countries which has been outspoken and hawkish in condemning Moscow.

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US Intelligence Says Iran Is 'Not Building A Nuclear Weapon'

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

US intelligence agencies have reaffirmed that there’s no evidence Iran is developing nuclear weapons or that Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has reversed his 2003 fatwah that banned the production of weapons of mass destruction.

"The IC continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003," Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing.

Via Associated Press

Gabbard’s comments were based on the annual threat assessment, which is released by the ODNI with input from all US intelligence agencies. The report did note that there have been more calls inside Iran to reverse the ban on nuclear weapons, which have grown in response to Israeli aggression in the region.

"In the past year, there has been an erosion of a decades-long taboo on discussing nuclear weapons in public that has emboldened nuclear weapons advocates within Iran’s decision-making apparatus," the report reads.

"Khamenei remains the final decision maker over Iran’s nuclear program, to include any decision to develop nuclear weapons," it notes.

The threat assessment comes amid increasing US sanctions and threats of military action over Iran’s nuclear program. Iranian officials have rejected the idea of talks with the US in the face of President Trump’s "maximum pressure campaign," but have said the door is open for indirect negotiations.

The hype over Iran’s nuclear program revolves around the enrichment of some uranium at 60%, the highest level Iran has achieved but still lower than the 90% needed for weapons-grade. Iran first took the step to enrich at 60% in response to a 2021 Israeli sabotage attack against its Natanz nuclear facility, which was meant to sabotage talks between the Biden administration and Tehran.

Iran is still a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and has told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that it won’t enrich uranium beyond the 60% level.

Still, more of this alarmism is coming out...

BREAKING: "Iran has reduced the time required to produce sufficient weapons-grade uranium for a nuclear device from 10-15 days to presumably less than one week." -- U.S. STRATCOM

— Faytuks Network (@FaytuksNetwork) March 26, 2025

Amid increasing US and Israeli threats about its nuclear program, Iran has recently pointed out that Israel has a secret nuclear weapons stockpile, and its nuclear program is not subject to IAEA inspections since Israel is not a signatory to the NPT.

Tyler Durden Wed, 03/26/2025 - 14:20