“Panic Unfolds”: Nonprofit Sector Battered By 419% Surge In Job Losses And Grantmaking Freeze
Long before the political assassination of Charlie Kirk, the protest-industrial complex, which fuels endless color-revolution-style operations against ‘MAGA’ and is bankrolled by billionaire-funded dark-money networks, declared war on President Trump and his supporters many years ago. It’s only now that the White House is beginning to understand the NGO beast and the funding webs that quite frankly want regime change – at any cost necessary.
This year alone, the Trump administration has dismantled USAID and threatened RICO charges against the Soros Foundation. There have been headlines in the news that the Gates Foundation abruptly severed ties with the Arabella Network and reports revealing foreign influence operations among far-left NGOs waging war on Trump. The nonprofit industry, one of the most mysterious and complex to understand, has been placed in the limelight for the world to see as the White House’s coming crackdown has spooked nonprofits not just on the far left that want to destroy America from within, but even nonprofit operators on the right.
Take, Lawson Bader, president and CEO of DonorsTrust, a major conservative donor-advised fund, recently warned the White House against politically motivated investigations of leftist nonprofits without strong evidence of wrongdoing. Following the assassination of Kirk, Bader told The Free Press he’s alarmed by “retaliatory rhetoric.”
Bader’s comments came amid reports that the Trump administration is planning investigations into leftist nonprofits like Open Society Foundations and many other foundations, following Trump’s pledge to fight “domestic terrorism and organized political violence.” This also comes as Vice President J.D. Vance and senior adviser Stephen Miller have declared war on the radical left groups.
There have been numerous reports from the Capital Research Center and investigative researchers Peter Schweizer and Seamus Bruner of the Government Accountability Institute that show an abundance of evidence via 990 filings that Soros foundations and other leftist billionaire-funded groups funneled money into “pro-terror groups.”
Schweizer’s top researcher, Bruner, even addressed President Trump on live television about the nonprofit crisis that has waged an endless war against the White House.
He said, “We have identified dozens of radical organizations, not just the decentralized Antifa organizations, but dozens of radical organizations that have received more than $100 million from the Riot Inc investors.”
Given the hard evidence uncovered by CRC and Schweizer’s team, Bader and others in the industry have called for defending philanthropic freedom instead of digging deeper into the NGO world, warning that investigations into far-left charities could backfire and eventually be used against conservative causes.
We’ve got news for Bader and company: it’s too late. The gloves are off, and if the new face of the Democratic Party, the DSA Marxists, ever seizes power at the executive level, it’s game over.
Currently, the nonprofit world – on both sides of the political aisle – is trembling in fear at what the White House may do next.
According to The Free Press, the administration is weighing how to make good on that promise, and “everybody is concerned across the board about being investigated,” said one nonprofit boss managing more than $1 billion in assets. Another said the fear of probes is already chilling fundraising across the sector.
Heads of Soros-aligned organizations have privately discussed changes to their compliance practices to avoid legal exposure. One foundation reportedly tightened its lobbying policies, while some donors have already pulled back.
Conservative watchdogs have amplified scrutiny of foreign influence. And that’s most likely the angle the administration will take on “dismantling” the NGO world.
Just days ago…
European Billionaires Funneled $2 Billion Via Transatlantic NGO Network To Erode U.S. Democracy, Finance Anti-Trump Protest Machine https://t.co/7deOFtVMwE
The White House has also shown interest in foreign-linked donors, such as the Cuba connection and the China connection via Marxist billionaire Neville Roy Singham.
EVERY SINGLE REPUBLICAN on @GOPoversight signed on to our investigation into billionaire Neville Singham.
The pressure campaign against the nonprofit world has already delivered impressive results, with several liberal foundations freezing or scaling back grantmaking and a wave of layoffs rippling across the sector.
The latest jobs data via Challenger, Gray & Christmas shows an absolute apocalypse for the nonprofit job market:
Non-profits continue to be impacted by Government funding as well as rising costs. These entities announced plans to cut 27,651 this year, an increase of 419% from the 5,329 announced by this point in 2024.red striking results, with several liberal foundations freezing or scaling back grantmaking and a wave of layoffs rippling across the sector.
“When you shine light on billion-dollar NGO networks, they scramble. We are seeing the panic unfold in real time — burner phones, law firms, and retreat statements. That tells you our research is hitting the mark. When you follow the money, the facts speak louder than spin,” Bruner told us.
CHULA VISTA, Calif.—The scene that unfolded along Interstate 5 looked like a carefully choreographed action-film sequence. But it was a real life-or-death situation.
Flames and smoke billowed into the night sky from a vehicle that had crashed off the roadway. Upon arrival, police discovered that the car’s driver was trapped inside, screaming in agony.
“C’mon, give me your hand!” an officer yelled, as he and three others worked frantically to extricate the man through a rear window they had broken.
Panting and grunting, the officers struggled. Then, seconds after they pulled the man to safety along the highway’s berm, the car exploded. A ball of fire engulfed it—just as a fire truck arrived.
The Hollywood-worthy timing, captured on video, is breathtaking.
“That guy probably would have perished,” Chula Vista Police Capt. John English said, if not for the officers’ heroism—and the aid of a camera-equipped, airborne drone.
By relaying real-time information to officers as they head to emergencies such as this one, drones help police plan their actions.
English reviewed video of the fiery rescue with The Epoch Times, explaining how a drone helped officers save the man’s life.
As the car burned, the drone’s aerial view allowed police to quickly identify the best route to the scene. Without that perspective, officers easily could have chosen a more distant highway entrance. “That would have taken extra time to get there—and they didn’t have it,” English said.
Also, because the drone’s thermal imaging showed no person near the burning car, officers suspected someone might still be inside the wreckage. That fear increased their sense of urgency, helping to avert tragedy.
Although the man and three of the four rescuing officers were hurt, all recovered. That incident, on Oct. 13, 2023, stands out as a dramatic example of how drones are bolstering police work across the nation.
Officers have used terms such as “game-changer,” “transformational,” and “revolutionary” to describe the impact of drones on their jobs.
Others are raising alarms over this technology’s capability to be intrusive.
In Eureka, a city of about 25,000 people in northern California, opponents recently stopped local police from even looking into a drone program.
The city’s police had relied on outside agencies for drone assistance in several situations, such as locating armed suspects near school campuses, and negotiating with a suicidal person who threatened to leap from the city water tower. Lacking a local drone fleet “can limit timely access to this critical resource,” officials said, explaining the reason for the proposed study.
After citizens pressured city leaders to back away from the idea, the city announced that the proposed drone study was cut from city council’s Oct. 21 agenda.
An opposition group, which declared victory on its website, said it expects the city to resurrect the proposal. If that happens, “We vow to keep fighting surveillance overreach … [to] preserve our integrity, safety, and privacy in our rapidly changing world.”
Advocates say that police already are following standard procedures that safeguard people’s privacy while greatly enhancing public safety. They consider drones a crucial asset at a time when many police agencies are understaffed and underfunded.
From Rescues to Arrests
In the seven years since Chula Vista pioneered using drones as first responders, increasing numbers of police and fire agencies have adopted the technology.
Some, including Chula Vista, still use advanced, affordable drones from DJI—a source of security concerns because the company is based in China, which has a history of stealing American technology and data.
Chula Vista says its devices have always operated with U.S.-based software “to bypass the drone manufacturer’s systems.” Data from the drones is encrypted and stored on U.S.-based servers “that meet federal requirements for confidential law enforcement databases,” the police department’s website states.
Skydio, a U.S. company, supplies drones to 800 public safety agencies, including New York City, where police are using the aircraft to quell the dangerous trend of riding on top of subways—known as “subway surfing.”
In Cincinnati, which sits along the Ohio River, police used a drone to track a felony suspect who jumped into the water and tried to swim away.
In Redmond, Washington, officers used a drone to reveal the hidden location of a missing elderly man with dementia. He was found safe, sitting in a wooded area.
Police in all three cities run drone first response programs. Drones go airborne to relay and record live video images from scenes where people reported disturbances or circumstances that appear to imperil lives, safety, or property.
Across America, officers credit drones with improving police safety and efficiency. Drones also help police rescue people, de-escalate contentious situations, and arrest suspects.
“We hear more and more reports from our customers about people actually surrendering to drones,” Skydio CEO Adam Bry said at a 2024 conference in California.
His audience had just watched a staged, live demonstration of a remote police officer using a drone to track a fleeing suspect. Using the drone’s loudspeaker, the officer ordered him to put his hands up and walk toward on-scene police. Such an outcome “is not far-fetched at all,” Bry said.
Chula Vista Laid Groundwork
Jon Beal, CEO of the Law Enforcement Drone Association, said he expects the drone first responder trend to grow rapidly, largely because of “trailblazers” such as Chula Vista.
That department’s leaders “stuck their necks out” to figure out drone methods that are now being replicated across the nation, he said, noting that departments fine tune policies to meet each community’s needs.
Over the years, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has been removing approval obstacles.
And President Donald Trump’s June executive order supporting expansion of drone use in the United States further aims to streamline the administration’s processes for drones.
It builds on a directive he issued during his first presidency, ordering agencies to update regulations for “unmanned aircraft systems”—the technical term for drones and their related equipment—while ensuring safe operations. He aims to spur drone use in sectors ranging from agriculture to commerce and emergency management.
The technology’s role in law enforcement has become increasingly important, Beal said. “We believe we’re getting to that place where … it’s almost negligent” if departments fail to use every tool available—including drones, he said.
That’s particularly true in “search-for-persons operations” and high-risk incidents, Beal said. Those might include police serving search warrants targeting dangerous people or responding to shootings-in-progress, unruly crowds, or standoffs with barricaded suspects.
In such circumstances, the high-tech devices give officers two new advantages: “an eye in the sky and time on their side,” Beal said.
About 2,500 police agencies own at least one drone, and 400 police departments run some type of drone program, Beal estimated.
Those numbers are low, considering America is home to about 18,000 federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies.
But “we’ve got law enforcement agencies buying drones on a daily basis,” Beal said.
Agencies that lack their own drones often borrow them from neighboring departments.
And, as agencies’ drone use expands, people on both sides of the political aisle are raising concerns, Beal acknowledged.
In Eureka, California, an Oct. 17 social media post from a group calling itself “The Humboldt Area Center for Harm Reduction” called drones “militarized police technology” and “fascist.”
“Research is only the first step,” the post said, alleging police would move toward “a military drone surveillance program.”
Beal said it’s impractical—and irresponsible—for agencies to deploy drones for general surveillance. It makes no sense for officials to say, “Hey, we’re gonna go out and fly a drone for 10 hours today and hopefully find something,” he said.
Misusing the technology, he said, could ignite backlash against drone programs across America.
Beal’s 2,000-member nonprofit helps train drone operators and sets standards to ensure that the technology is being used “the right way,” he said. His group assists public safety agencies not only across America but also in Canada, Europe, South America, and Australia.
To learn more about police drones, The Epoch Times visited Chula Vista as well as Cincinnati’s new program, which began this summer.
Although the two departments are located 2,200 miles apart and serve starkly dissimilar communities, both follow some of the same key principles. Their drone pilots must be federally certified, and policies prohibit general patrolling or random surveillance with drones.
Unique factors affect police drone operations in each city.
Chula Vista, which means “pretty view” in Spanish, enjoys Southern California weather that is reliably clear and sunny—ideal drone-flying conditions.
And it is a low-rise city, with buildings mostly 20 stories or lower—simplifying drones’ flight paths.
The police headquarters building is only about four stories high, but its rooftop enables a miles-wide view. It’s one of the locations from which police launch drones.
Under federal rules, a person must be present at the site; that’s typically a contractor who performs maintenance on the drones and coordinates flights with a drone operator inside the building. The indoor employees operate controls and monitor computer displays of maps and of drone-collected images.
In contrast, Cincinnati faces more obstacles for its drone flights.
Midwest weather tends to be more fickle, and skyscrapers form the Queen City’s distinctive skyline—posing challenges for drones. Tall buildings can disrupt GPS signals that guide the aircraft. The structures also may create a “canyon wind effect” that can destabilize drones.
Numerous federal flight restrictions affect Cincinnati airspace, too. While Chula Vista lacks a professional sports team, Cincinnati is home to three: Reds baseball, Bengals football, and FC Cincinnati soccer. Those teams’ schedules and the presence or movement of Vice President JD Vance, whose permanent residence is in Cincinnati, all can cause the FAA to impose restrictions.
The chart below paints a disturbing picture for those not in the top 10%…
And the accusations regarding who is responsible are predictable, endless, and mostly wrong.
“The top 10% of US households now hold 87% of all US stocks owned by households, with the top 1% alone owning 50%. By comparison, the remaining 90% hold just 13%, while the bottom 50% hold only 1%. The wealth gap has never been bigger.”
– Kobeissi Letter
The “tax the rich” crowd are loud and ignorant of facts, but that doesn’t stop them from bloviating and screaming shrilly on the left wing media channels.
The top 10% aren’t the problem.
They constitute the entrepreneurial class, who open new businesses and hire employees. Most of the top 1% are also hard working creators of wealth.
It’s the .01% globalist billionaire class who are mainly to blame for the economic shitstorm brewing on the horizon.
Young people now overwhelmingly see socialism as preferable to capitalism because they have been indoctrinated by left wing professors and the legacy left media mouthpieces, promoting the Mandamis, AOCs, Bernies and Pocahontases of the world. It doesn’t matter their socialist/commie agenda has a 100% proven record of being erroneous and economically disastrous anywhere on earth it has been implemented, with millions of dead bodies as proof. The truth is we have not experienced true free market capitalism since the unholy conception of the Federal Reserve and initiation of the Federal income tax in 1913. That was surely a bad year for humanity.
When the wealth data is presented in a fair and accurate way, it truly paints a picture of woe for the bottom 50%. Of course, those in the top 10%, who own all of the stocks and businesses, along with most of the real estate, feel little or no pity for the bottom 50%. They think they are lazy, ignorant and stupid. In many cases, that is an accurate assessment, but there are millions of hard working people in the bottom 50% who are there because the .01% like it that way. George Carlin’s famous rant captures the reality of their situation:
“They want more for themselves and less for everybody else, but I’ll tell you what they don’t want: They don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don’t want well informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking. They’re not interested in that. That doesn’t help them. That’s against their interests. That’s right. They don’t want people who are smart enough to sit around a kitchen table to figure out how badly they’re getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fucking years ago. They don’t want that.
You know what they want? They want obedient workers. Obedient workers. People who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork, and just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it, and now they’re coming for your Social Security money.”
Carlin’s disturbingly accurate description of America from two decades ago is truer now than it was then. “They” have accumulated trillions more, while the rest of us have seen our standard of living relentlessly decline due to the Federal Reserve manufactured inflation – designed to accelerate stock market gains and leave the masses destitute. The USD has lost 97% of its purchasing power since the Creature from Jekyll Island slithered from the swamps of DC in 1913. Your 2% to 3% annual raise is consumed by the 5% to 10% increase in things you need to live (food, energy, medical care, education) every year. That is why the Bottom 50% has an average net worth of $54,300.
The real question is who are “THEY”? It is certainly not the top 10%, or even the top 1%. Whether you refer to them as the ruling elite, oligarchy, globalist cabal, or satanic psychopaths, they constitute only a fraction of the 1%. There are approximately 3,000 billionaires in the world, with about a third of them in the U.S. That means they make up about .0003% of the U.S. population and an even smaller percentage of the 8.2 billion global population. Many of these billionaires are just the children or spouses of men who accumulated that wealth. That leaves a few hundred men meeting the criteria of psychopaths in suits, with totalitarian tendencies, ensconced with a heaping helping of greed, thirst for power, and desire to rule the world.
Let’s be honest, these psychopathic pedophile billionaires and their cadre of well compensated legions of apparatchiks placed within the government, media, universities, finance industry, “think” tanks and fake “charitable” foundations, believe the bottom 50% are nothing more than mouth breathing parasites. They are the ignorant lower class Proles in Orwell’s 1984 and the semi-literate Deltas in Huxley’s Brave New World. They have always been despised by the ruling class throughout history. The current crop of oligarchs truly believe they can replace the “worthless eaters” with robots and AI. Their de-population agenda of killing off the weak, poisoning the healthy, and imprisoning the remainder in a CBDC techno-gulag of their making, is in progress.
Most upper middle class people are trapped in the normalcy bias of ever growing stock market gains boosting their 401k wealth and thinking a doubling of their home’s value over the last five years makes sense. The level of cognitive dissonance among the masses is at all-time highs, as they can see our unsustainable Ponzi financial system is built on a mountain of unpayable debt, but they continue to go further into debt, assuming the overlords running this shitshow will just bail everyone out again when it collapses for the final time.
Maybe they are right, but I think the psychopaths in suits are getting ready to “pull” a Building 7 on our asses. When I bring up the Great Taking scheme to normies, I get nothing but blank stares because it is inconceivable to them that invisible forces who control the levers of our financial system would conduct a “bail in” operation to save the world from the very financial implosion they have engineered. The normies argue the rich would be hurt the worst because they have the most to lose. What they don’t realize is the overlords know what is going to happen and will position themselves and their devoted minions to benefit from the financial collapse.
The likes of Gates, Soros, Theil, Altman, Musk, Buffett, and many other shadowy billionaires believe the planet would be far more efficient, productive, and profitable for them if it was occupied by a few billion less eaters. They believe their technological advancements and authoritarian mandates would create a world where they wield unquestioned power and control over our lives. They tested their plan using the Covid Plandemic and it convinced them the ignorant masses could be corralled and coerced in any direction they choose.
They used lies, propaganda, and misinformation to convince billions to shutdown the world, huddle in fear within their hovels, shun friends and relatives, inject themselves with an untested dangerous gene therapy that didn’t stop or diminish the virus, fear the annual flu, bow down to the totalitarian measures inflicted upon them by politicians and bureaucrats, and be happy with the pittance doled out to them by their government overlords. They “convinced” 5.6 billion people to get injected with their de-population serum, without a hint of outrage or push back.
Meanwhile, the net worth of the billionaire club grew from $8 trillion in 2019 to over $16 trillion today. Shockingly, the majority of that growth was in the technology and finance realms. Has your net worth doubled since the pandemic? Top 10 US billionaires’ collective wealth grew by $700 billion in the past year alone. These people rule the world, make the laws, siphon the profits through their control of the Federal Reserve, Washington DC, Wall Street, Big Pharma, Silicon Valley, and the Military Industrial Complex, while senior citizens have to decide between paying for their medicines or putting food on the table, and young people see no chance of ever owning a home.
Most cynical old codgers, like myself, have trouble visualizing enough people banding together and leading a revolution to overthrow the existing social order. And as long as the bread and circuses are sustained through their money printing debt to eternity scheme, revolution will be postponed. But, the arrogance and hubris of the billionaire psychopaths knows no bounds. Their wealth harvesting operation will reach a limit, unforeseen circumstances (natural disaster, war, massive fraud uncovered) will trigger a financial collapse. The bottom 50% are already destitute. When college educated upper middle class debt slaves lose 80% of their faux wealth in the blink of an eye, the opportunity for real revolution will present itself. Someone will need to stand up.
The ruling class will seek to implement their Digital ID/Digital Currency malicious plot as the solution to the financial collapse they created. This is where it should get interesting. Will the masses again fall for their fear propaganda, totalitarian dictates, lies about the true nature and causes of their purposely engineered crisis, or will someone stand up for truth, honesty, and allowing future generations to not grow up as slaves within a billionaire controlled techno-gulag? This conflict will likely arise within the next five or so years.
1) A privileged elite class reap all the wealth while pissing on the lower classes;
2) The lower and middle classes are taxed to the point of poverty;
3) The government increases debt to an unsustainable, unpayable level;
4) wasteful military adventures drain the Treasury;
5) rampant government corruption;
6) societal discontent & chaos;
7) economic/financial crisis.
All the dominoes are lined up, just waiting for the trigger flick which will start the cascade of consequences.
Fourth Turnings never fizzle out. They build to a crescendo of violent upheaval with clear winners and losers.
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”
– John F. Kennedy
We need to keep in mind there are only 3,000 billionaires on this planet and only a few hundred fall into the category of psychopaths in suits. Yes, they live in gated palaces with ample security forces, but the common folk of this country own over 300 million firearms. If or when they feel they have nothing left to lose, the protected privileged classes should start to worry. Their gates will protect them from the consequences of their actions. We may decide to Make Guillotines Great Again.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ZeroHedge.
Amazon’s Power Shortage Makes The Case For Why AI Needs Nuclear
As we have been consistently highlighting on Zero Hedge for the better part of the last two years, rapid growth in artificial intelligence and cloud computing is testing America’s electric grid and exposing the urgent need for new, always-available power.
The most recent example highlighted by Bloomberg was a case where Amazon has accused PacifiCorp, a Berkshire Hathaway–owned utility, of failing to deliver enough electricity for four planned data-center campuses in Oregon.
In a complaint to state regulators, the company said PacifiCorp provided too little power to one site, “no power” to a second, and “has refused to even complete its own standard contracting process for the third and fourth Data Center Campuses.” PacifiCorp argues it must protect “customer affordability,” saying: “We are open to ongoing discussions with Amazon to reach a resolution that achieves balanced outcomes for all customers.”
As President Donald Trump pushes to accelerate AI infrastructure, power demand from computing is forecast to more than double in the US by 2035, according to BloombergNEF. Utilities and tech giants now depend on each other — but utilities worry about straining the grid and raising bills if the AI boom falters.
That’s why new nuclear options are gaining attention. Another recent example highlighted by Bloomberg: First American Nuclear Co. plans to build self-sustaining reactors in Indiana to power data centers. The plant will begin with natural gas in 2028, then shift to a 240-megawatt liquid-metal fast reactor by 2032 that can reprocess its own spent fuel.
“Data centers are driving the demand for power,” said CEO Mike Reinboth.
The company aims to deploy six such systems, enough to power 1.5 million homes. Its technology uses lead-bismuth coolant — a design tested for years in Russian submarines. By recycling spent uranium, the reactors would slash waste costs and improve energy security. “The waste actually gives you energy,” said founder Bill Stokes.
From Oregon to Indiana, the message is consistent: digital growth is outpacing the grid. To keep AI running — and keep consumer costs stable — the U.S. will need reliable, scalable power. Nuclear is increasingly stepping in as the only technology that can provide it.
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., is challenging explanations that FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi lack full control of their agencies nearly a year into the Trump administration, particularly when it comes to their handling of Jeffrey Epstein investigation files.
Sen. Ron Johnson recently suggested that Patel and Bondi face significant internal resistance. While discussing newly released Arctic Frost investigation documents late last month, Johnson emphasized that records came from whistleblowers rather than official channels.
“We need to do everything we can to assist Director Patel and AG Bondi in making sure they have the staff to take control over these agencies,” Johnson said per a report by Blaze Media. “I think they’re being sabotaged within.”
Johnson added that partisan actors remain embedded in both agencies. “Right now I think Kash Patel and Pam Bondi are overwhelmed by all the mess they’re trying to clean up,” he stated. “There’s still partisan actors burrowed in, trying to sabotage their efforts.”
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah., echoed these concerns, writing that Patel and Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino are “undoubtedly being sabotaged from within the FBI.”
Kash Patel and Dan Bongino are undoubtedly being sabotaged from within FBI
We should all be grateful for their willingness to serve
However, Massie questions whether internal sabotage explains the administration’s reversal on releasing Epstein files. “I also wonder why they flipped on the Epstein files,” Massie said. “We can’t chalk that up to sabotage or lack of resources.”
Almost a year into this administration, Senator Ron Johnson explains that Pam Bondi and Kash Patel do not yet have operational control of the FBI and DOJ.
I agree, but I also wonder why they flipped on the Epstein files. We can’t chalk that up to sabotage or lack of resources. https://t.co/pw5E6mXyKC
In February, Bondi publicly promised transparency, telling Fox News that the Epstein files were sitting on her desk and that she would release them, including what she described as a client list. But in July, the DOJ and FBI released an unsigned memorandum concluding their review and stating that no incriminating client list existed and no further files would be released.
The reversal sparked outrage among Trump supporters. During September congressional hearings. Massie confronted Patel about FBI documents detailing at least 20 men named by Epstein survivors, including high profile individuals in business, entertainment and politics.
Patel claimed three separate U.S. Attorneys had assessed these allegations as not credible.
Massie and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., recently launched a discharge petition to force a vote on releasing all Epstein files. The petition gathered 217 signatures as of early November, one short of the 218 needed for a floor vote.
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
These Are The 40 Airports That Will Reduce Flights Due To Shutdown
The world’s busiest airport and 39 others across the United States were forced to decrease flights by 10 percent starting on Nov. 7.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced the decision on Nov. 4, as it struggles with personnel shortages due to the ongoing government shutdown. Those flight controllers who stay on continue to work without pay.
“We can’t ignore it,” FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said at a press conference on Nov. 4.
“If the pressures continue to build even after we take these measures, we’ll come back and take additional measures.”
Beford added that he was unaware of the FAA taking any measures like this in his 35 years in the aviation industry.
The list – obtained by The Associated Press – spans the country, affecting air travel to and from 24 states and several hubs for major passenger carriers including United Airlines, Delta Airlines, American Airlines, Southwest, Jet Blue, Alaska Airlines, and Hawaiian Airlines.
As T.J.Muscaro details below for The Epoch Times, the list includes Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, which is considered to be the busiest airport in the world; Memphis International Airport, which is a FedEx Superhub and considered the second-busiest cargo airport in the world; and global access points such as John F. Kennedy International Airport, Miami International Airport, and Los Angeles International Airport.
The airports affected are:
Ted Stevens Anchorage International in Alaska.
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International in Georgia
Boston Logan International in Massachusetts
Baltimore/Washington International in Maryland
Charlotte Douglas International in North Carolina
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International in Ohio
Dallas Love Field in Texas
Ronald Reagan Washington National in Virginia
Denver International in Colorado
Dallas/Fort Worth International in Texas
Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County in Michigan
Newark Liberty International in New Jersey
Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International in Florida
Honolulu International in Hawaii
Houston Hobby in Texas
Washington Dulles International in Virginia
George Bush Houston Intercontinental in Texas
Indianapolis International in Indiana
John F. Kennedy International in New York
Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas
Los Angeles International in California
LaGuardia Airport in New York
Orlando International in Florida
Chicago Midway International in Illinois
Memphis International in Tennessee
Miami International in Florida
Minneapolis/St Paul International in Minnesota
Oakland International in California
Ontario International in California
Chicago O`Hare International in Illinois
Portland International in Oregon
Philadelphia International in Pennsylvania
Phoenix Sky Harbor International in Arizona
San Diego International in California
Louisville International in Kentucky
Seattle/Tacoma International in Washington
San Francisco International in California
Salt Lake City International in Utah
Teterboro in New Jersey
Tampa International in Florida
According to data from the FlightAware tracking service, there were more than 2,350 delays within, into, or out of the United States as of noon on Thursday, Oct. 6, with approximately 50 cancellations reported.
The FAA directs more than 44,000 flights daily, including cargo, commercial passenger, and private planes. Restrictions, it said, would remain in place as long as necessary, and they come just weeks before the nation enters one of the busiest travel periods of the year for Thanksgiving and the Christmas season.
“As we come into Thanksgiving, if we’re still in the shutdown posture, it’s going to be rough out there. Really rough,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told Fox News in an interview on Nov. 6.
“And we‘ll mitigate the safety side, but will you fly on time? Will your flight actually go? That is yet to be seen, but there’ll be more disruption.”
These restrictions would end with the government shutdown, which has been ongoing for more than a month due to the inability of a continuing resolution bill to pass the Senate.
Republicans currently hold a 53–47 majority in the Senate. However, 60 Senators need to vote yes in order to move the bill forward. Republican lawmakers continue to criticise Democratic lawmakers for continuing to vote no and failing to fund the government.
“I don’t have access to money to pay air traffic controllers during this shutdown,” Duffy said on X.
“Congress has said there is no money. I’d love to pay them, but I can’t. My message to Democrats is to sit down, figure it out, and not hold the American people hostage—especially when they want to travel.”
The Epoch Times has reached out to the FAA for comment.
“In spite of all the rhetoric, we will go deeper in debt, the Fed will print more money, and the value of the dollar will continue to plummet.”
– Ron Paul
Never in history have the economic and political structures been so manipulated by those who are responsible for their safekeeping; never has so much been at stake, in so many countries, and facing collapse, allat the same time.
The great majority of people in the First World recognise that the world is passing through an economic crisis. However, most are under the impression that there are some pretty smart fellows running the show and all they need to do is tweak the system a bit more and we’ll return to happy days.
Not so. The “smart fellows” who are in charge of fixing the problem are in fact the very same people who created it.
Understandably, this a hard concept for most people to even consider, let alone accept, as the very idea that those in charge of the system might consciously collapse it seems preposterous. So, we might wish to back up a bit here and present a very brief history of the system itself, in order to understand that the eventual collapse of the economic system was baked in the cake from the very beginning.
Creating a Central Bank
From the very earliest days of the formation of the American republic, bankers (along with inside help from George Washington’s secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton) sought to create a banking monopoly that would create the country’s currency and become the central banking system.
The first attempt at a central bank was a failure, and strong opponents, including Thomas Jefferson, prevented a second central bank for a time. Later, further attempts were made by bankers and their political cronies, and each central bank was either short-lived or defeated in its planning stages.
Then, in 1913, the heads of the largest banks met clandestinely on Jekyll Island, Georgia, to make another try. Having recently lost yet another bid to create a central bank, due to the public’s understandable concern that the big bankers were already too powerful, a new spin was placed on the idea. This time, they decided to present the idea as a government body that would be decentralised and would have the responsibility of restricting the power of the banks.
However, the new bill was in fact the same old bill, with a new title and some minor changes in wording. But this time, it would be presented by the new president, who was a liberal.
The president, Woodrow Wilson, had in fact been handpicked by the banks. The banks then scuttled their own conservative party’s candidate, got the Democrat Wilson elected, then installed a secretary of the Treasury whose job it would be to ensure that the Federal Reserve was created.
The bill was widely supported by the public, even though, in truth, it was not a federal agency, but a privately owned conglomerate, controlled by the banks. Neither was it a reserve. It was never intended to store money; it was intended to give the biggest bankers control of the economy. They followed the central principle of uber-banker Mayer Rothschild: “Let me issue and control a nation’s money and I care not who writes the laws.”
From the start, the new institution peddled itself as the protector of the people’s interests, but it was quite the opposite. Its purpose from its inception was to control the economy and the government by controlling the issuance of the currency. In addition, it was to be a system of taxation.
Typically, a population accepts a certain amount of direct taxation but has its limits of tolerance. Yet, the bankers understood that a less direct method of taxation was infinitely more profitable and infinitely safer from criticism.
Inflation as a Profit System
Inflation was not always the norm. At one time, prices were relatively static from one generation to the next. But the Federal Reserve touted the idea that “controlled” inflation was in fact necessary for a prosperous economy.
Of course, the greater the debasement of the currency through inflation, the more the central bankers profited. But at some point, the currency would have lost virtually all its value and it would be time for a reset. The currency would need to collapse and a new one created.
And so, the Fed set about its hundred-year programme of continuous inflation. Although there have been periods of lower inflation (and even deflation), the programme stayed more or less on course, and now, its hundred-year life has all but ended: the dollar has been devalued almost 100%.
And so, we find ourselves at the day of reckoning. The economic crisis we are now facing (not only in the US; it will be felt, to a greater or lesser extent, worldwide) is not a mere anomaly that we need to “push past”. It’s a systemic crisis. It’s been created by design and the system must collapse.
Of course, the central banks are in the process of protecting their interests, to make sure that, whilst this will be a major economic calamity, they themselves will continue to profit. The damage will be borne by the general public.
This began in earnest in 1999, with the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, allowing banks to create a massive, reckless mortgage spree. It was backed by the government’s “too big to fail” policy that guaranteed that, when the banks predictably became insolvent as a result of the loans, government would bail them out. (And by “government” we mean “the taxpayer”; it was he who picked up the bill for the banks’ recklessness.)
The End Game
The next step in getting ready for the collapse is an all-out effort to confiscate the wealth of the public. This can be seen in the effort to push investors away from solid forms of wealth protection such as gold and silver and into stocks, bonds and bank deposits. More recently, we’ve seen the emergence of an effort to end the use of safe deposit boxes and a push to end the use of paper currency in making transactions.
The end objective is to force as much money as possible into deposits in banks, then take it. The US, EU and a few other countries have passed confiscation legislation, allowing the banks carte blanche to confiscate and/or refuse to release deposits.
Of course a reset of these proportions will not be without its fallout. The public will be horrified at the outcome, at the realisation that the very institutions they thought had been created to protect them had never been intended to serve their interests at all.
Once they realise that the world’s greatest Ponzi scheme has been foisted on them, they will be hopping mad and justifiably so. Those who had not had the foresight to internationalise themselves, to remove themselves as much as possible from the system, will most certainly want to get even in some way.
And this makes clear why governments, particularly that of the US, are working so hard to create a police state. Unless a totalitarian state can be created, those who are presently taking the wealth may not be able to fully realise their objectives.
The coming train wreck is no accident. It has long been planned. That the “smart fellows in charge” will somehow save the day is therefore a vain hope indeed.
It’s still possible to back out of the system, but it’s getting more difficult every day. The window is closing, and the time to internationalise is now.
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Ford Mulls Scrapping F-150 Lightning After Dismal Demand, Mounting Losses
Ford is reportedly set to scrap the F-150 Lightning, once hailed by top executives as the company’s “modern Model T,” amid absolutely terrible demand. Production lines for the electric pickup remain paralyzed after an aluminum shortage halted operations last month.
A new Wall Street Journal report indicates that the F-150 Lightning is on the chopping block after $13 billion in EV losses since 2023. If accurate, this would make the money-losing truck America’s first major EV casualty.
CEO Jim Farley previously called the F-150 Lightning “as revolutionary as the Model T,” promising a truck that would democratize electric mobility just as the original Model T democratized driving. Yet how could Farley have been so wrong about the Lightning … and did his climate-change blinders end up damaging shareholder value? It’s something the board should be taking a hard look at.
Demand for the EV truck is absolutely horrendous.
Adam Kraushaar, owner of Lester Glenn Auto Group in New Jersey, told WSJ that F-150 Lightning demand is “not there.” He also sells GMC, Chevy, and other brands. “We don’t order a lot of them because we don’t sell them.”
WSJ noted, “No final decision has yet been made, according to people familiar with the discussions, but such a move by Ford could be the beginning of the end for big EV trucks.”
The big question is whether Farley and other top executives ignored red flags, such as declining orders, dealer warnings, and mounting losses on the EV truck, in their push to appease the globalist climate change cult on Wall Street. If the report is accurate, we wonder whether the board could find grounds to review his terrible EV judgment under the duty of care.
In October, Ford sold just 1,500 Lightnings, versus 66,000 petrol-powered F-Series trucks. EV sales overall have plunged 24% year-on-year after federal tax credits expired.
Ford shares have trended lower after the April 2022 release of the EV truck.
WSJ noted, “The company is now racing to build a compact $30,000 EV pickup.”
A U.S. appeals court on Thursday revived President Donald Trump’s bid to dismiss his business records criminal conviction, ruling the president can move his case out of a New York state court.
A panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed an order from a lower court judge, saying the judge had “bypassed what we consider to be important issues bearing on the ultimate issue of good cause.”
The panel of judges on the appeals court signaled that it did not weigh in on the merits of Trump’s lawyers’ arguments to dismiss the conviction. His lawyers filed court papers earlier this year to try to move the case out of New York so he could seek a ruling from a federal judge on whether the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity allows him to toss last year’s Manhattan jury verdict convicting him of falsifying business records.
“We leave it to the able and experienced District Judge to decide whether to solicit further briefing from the parties or hold a hearing to help it resolve these issues,” the appeals court judges wrote.
The panel further said the lower court “should resolve Trump’s motion for leave to file a second removal notice in any particular way” and said it should “consider the motion anew in light of our opinion.”
In May 2024, a jury convicted Trump on 34 counts of falsifying business records. Trump pleaded not guilty, maintaining that it was part of a widespread attempt to subvert his 2024 presidential campaign.
Weeks after Trump’s election victory in 2024, the judge in the case sentenced him to unconditional discharge, meaning that he faced no further penalties such as fines or jail time. The conviction, however, will remain on his criminal record.
Just days before Trump was inaugurated in January, Judge Juan Merchan noted in his order that the sentence was made with considerations of Trump being elected president.
Last year, U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein denied a bid from Trump’s attorneys to remove the case, prompting Trump’s appeal. The judge maintained that Trump had “not satisfied the burden of proof required to show the basis of removal.”
The petition to the U.S. appeals court is one of many appeals that Trump has filed to dismiss the criminal conviction.
Separately, Trump had filed court papers with the New York Supreme Court’s Appellate Division of the First District, appealing the criminal conviction.
“Targeting alleged conduct that has never been found to violate any New York law, the DA [district attorney] concocted a purported felony by stacking time-barred misdemeanors under a convoluted legal theory, which the DA then improperly obscured until the charge conference. This case should never have seen the inside of a courtroom, let alone resulted in a conviction,” his lawyers wrote in a filing in October.
Aside from the Manhattan case, criminal charges were also brought against Trump in Washington, Florida, and Georgia. The Washington and Florida cases, which were brought by former special counsel Jack Smith, were later dropped. The Georgia case, brought by the Fulton County District Attorney’s office, was dismissed by a state appeals court on Jan. 17, three days before Trump’s inauguration.
China’s return to the dollar bond market generated enough demand to cover the deal almost 30 times over, with a $118.1 billion order book.
“It was so popular,” said Serena Zhou, senior China economist at Mizuho Securities, adding that some investors complained they weren’t allocated enough bonds.
“Although it priced on par, it will still be free money.”
China last issued dollar bonds in 2024, when it sold $2bn of debt in Saudi Arabia.
“Markets are flush with liquidity and geopolitical tensions have eased,” said David Yim, head of capital markets, Greater China and North Asia, at Standard Chartered, which was one of the bookrunners for the deal.
Most notably, The FT reports that bankers on the deal said was the first time Beijing’s borrowing costs had matched Washington’sat issuance (while we do note that Chinese dollar-denominated bonds have previously traded at a negative spread to US equivalents in the secondary market).
China’s finance ministry issued $4bn of dollar bonds in Hong Kong, with the $2bn 3-year bond paying a coupon of 3.625 per cent, on par with US Treasury equivalents, and priced to yield 3.646 per cent, compared with 3.628 per cent for 3-year Treasuries.
The $2bn 5-year bond has a coupon 0.02 percentage points above equivalent Treasuries, with a yield of 3.787 per cent, compared with 3.745 per cent for US equivalents.
Issuance was split evenly between the two bonds.
The negligible spreads over Treasuries on the new bonds were an improvement even over China’s tight prints last year, when its three- and five-year notes were priced to yield just one and three basis points over similar-maturity Treasuries.
Bloomberg reports that more than half of the bonds were placed with investors in Asia, while European accounts got a quarter.
Investors in the Middle East and North Africa were allocated 16%.
The sale comes amid a steady rebound in dollar-note sales by Chinese firms, after the country’s unprecedented property crisis and the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate hikes triggered an issuance slump.
There’s been about $90 billion of publicly-announced sales in 2025, heading toward a three-year high, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
