Authored by Peter Burns & Isaac Six via RealClearPolitics,

For decades, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has been a pillar of global humanitarian assistance, channeling billions of dollars into development projects worldwide. But behind its noble mission of alleviating suffering and fostering stability lies a deeply flawed system – one riddled with pet political programs, excessive overhead, and a rejection of meaningful oversight. Now, as USAID faces drastic budget cuts and program suspensions, the consequences of these longstanding failures are being felt not just by contractors and implementers but by the very people the agency was meant to serve.

While some may view these reductions as an unfortunate casualty of shifting political priorities, they are, in many ways, the predictable outcome of an institution that has operated with a sense of entitlement for far too long. USAID’s unchecked hubris, its tendency to fund projects of questionable value, and its failure to ensure that taxpayer dollars are being spent advancing their interest have all contributed to the current crisis. If the United States is to maintain its leadership in international development, a fundamental reckoning with USAID’s practices is long overdue. 

A System Transformed To Serve Itself

Despite its important mission and the efforts of well-intentioned staff, USAID had become notorious for inefficiencies and bloated bureaucracies. A significant portion of its $58.4 billion budget never reached those in need, instead getting caught in a web of administrative costs and layers of subcontractors.

Take, for example, Chemonics International, one of USAID’s largest implementing partners. While its contracts are often worth billions, much of that money never reaches the ground. Instead, it is eaten up by overhead costs and an expansive bureaucracy that has grown wealthy off U.S. foreign aid. For example, when the first Trump administration announced hundreds of millions in aid money to help rebuild religious minority communities devastated by ISIS genocide, hopes were high, but between Chemonics and years of USAID bureaucratic entanglement, little of the money was ever seen or felt by the communities for which it was meant. 

At the heart of this problem is the way USAID structures its funding. Rather than directly administering aid, the agency too often relied on large implementing partners that, in turn, subcontracted work to other organizations. Each layer takes its share of the funding, leaving only a fraction of the original budget for actual aid delivery. This model has created an ecosystem in which a handful of firms secure massive contracts while local organizations – often better positioned to execute aid programs effectively – are historically sidelined.

Worse yet, USAID has a history of funding projects that, at best, have limited impact and, at worst, appear to be completely partisan nonsense. Taxpayer dollars have gone to fund a transgender-themed opera in Columbia, a DEI-themed musical event in Ireland, and an LGBTQ+ promoting comic book in Peru. In an era of growing global crisis, such spending choices raise serious questions about the agency’s priorities and how grant awards are being vetted. The plethora of absurd programs suggests more than a simple oversight within a massive bureaucracy. 

Wealthy Contractors, Struggling Recipients

For those who have worked within USAID’s ecosystem, the disconnect between the agency’s stated mission and its actual operations is glaring. Many of its largest contractors have thrived financially even as the populations they were meant to assist saw limited benefit. A handful of development firms have built entire business ecosystems off USAID funding, securing contract after contract while delivering lackluster results.

Meanwhile, the human cost of these inefficiencies cannot be overstated. As USAID-funded programs are halted or downsized, jobs are being lost – not just in Washington, D.C., but across the developing world. Local employees who relied on USAID-funded jobs to support their families now find themselves without work, caught in the fallout of an aid system that prioritized contract value over sustainable impact. 

The Path Forward

The current funding review comes at a pivotal moment. Recognizing the risks of an abrupt pullback, the administration has granted a waiver for existing life-saving humanitarian assistance programs, allowing them to continue while broader budgetary decisions are made. 

For U.S. international aid to regain the American people’s trust and truly advance U.S. national interest abroad, systemic changes must be made. [ZH: or just let it die] The process needs greater oversight in allocating funds and a renewed focus on delivering aid efficiently. This means reducing the reliance on massive contracts that siphon money away from recipients and instead empowering local organizations that can execute projects. On the ground, U.S. expertise and local faith communities that have existing trust and accountability can be used to balance the challenges of moving away from large international aid implementors. The idea of bringing foreign assistance back into the Department of State makes a lot of sense and reflects the structure many governments are moving toward, such as the UK’s restructuring in 2020. 

There is no question that foreign aid remains a critical tool of U.S. diplomacy and global leadership. Reforms of this nature are painful and disruptive, much like a first trip back to the gym after the holidays, but the results can be worth the burn. This moment of reckoning presents an opportunity to rebuild a system that truly works – one that prioritizes U.S. interest, effectiveness, and the people it was meant to help. Anything less would be a disservice to American taxpayers and the millions who rely on U.S. aid for survival.

Peter Burns is executive director of the International Religious Freedom Summit and previously served at the U.S. Department of State. 

Isaac Six is the co-founder and CEO of The Six Group, an organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom around the world, and has worked for nearly 14 years in Washington, D.C., on international religious freedom issues.

A study by Slot.Day ranked the ten highest-paid world leaders, comparing their salaries against their respective nations’ GDP per capita to standardize comparisons across economies.

Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong tops the list as the world’s highest-paid leader, earning $1.6 million annually—nearly 1.5 times the country’s GDP per capita of $84.7K, according to Slot.Day.

Hong Kong’s Chief Executive, John Lee Ka-chiu, ranks second with a $695K salary, more than 1.1 times Hong Kong’s GDP per capita but less than half of Wong’s earnings. Switzerland’s President, Viola Amherd, follows in third place, earning $572K, which is less than half of the country’s GDP per capita of $99.9K.

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese ranks fourth with a $413K salary, equating to 53% of the nation’s GDP per capita. U.S. President Donald Trump takes the fifth spot with a $400K salary—only 40% of the U.S. GDP per capita of $81.6K, the lowest ratio among the top 10.

The study by Slot.Day study revealed that in sixth place, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen earns $364K, about 50% of the EU’s GDP per capita. Austria’s Chancellor Karl Nehammer ranks seventh with a $317K salary, or 47% of Austria’s GDP per capita.

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon ranks eighth, earning $311K, or 53% of the country’s GDP per capita—the same ratio as his Australian counterpart. Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is ninth with a $301.4K salary, reflecting a salary-to-GDP ratio of 47.06%.

Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz rounds out the top ten with a $293.7K salary, maintaining the European norm at 46% of GDP per capita.

A spokesperson for Slot.Day said: “The vast differences in world leader salaries show how nations prioritize executive compensation in relation to economic output. While some leaders earn well above their country’s GDP per capita, others operate within stricter public service norms.”

They continued: “The uniformity of European salary ratios around 47% suggests a structured approach to governance pay, contrasting sharply with regions where leadership compensation far exceeds national averages. These disparities reflect broader political philosophies—whether leadership is seen as a high-value executive role or a duty bound by fiscal restraint.”

The entire dataset from the report can be found here. 

Submitted by Jim Bovard

High inflation spurred Donald Trump’s defeat of Kamala Harris last November. The economy was the top issue for most voters, and inflation was the top economic issue. As Biden’s partner in economic crime, Harris could not escape the blame for the torpedoing of the dollar’s value in recent years.

Inflation occurs when the government prints excessive currency, resulting in more money chasing the same amount of goods and services. Nobel Laureate economist Friedrich Hayek wrote, “Inflation is never an unavoidable natural disaster; it is always the result of the weakness or ignorance of those in charge of monetary policy.” As economist Per Bylund observed, “Inflation is money losing its purchasing power.” Government is the premier profiteer of inflation, providing politicians with “free” money to spend while systematically defaulting on any debts government promised to pay.

Biden inflation lies begin

In July 2021, Biden declared, “There’s nobody suggesting there’s unchecked inflation on the way — no serious economist.” Actually,  there were plenty of dire warnings. In December 2021, Biden scoffed at inflation as a “bump in the road.” But that “bump” became a hole in the gas tank for tens of millions of Americans who drive to work as fuel prices set one record after another. Biden claimed inflation is a problem everywhere, but National Public Radio reported that “between 2019 and 2021, the United States saw one of the biggest inflation rate increases in the world, behind only Brazil and Turkey.” Rep. Lance Gooden (R–Texas) noted, “Joe Biden promised $2,000 stimulus checks but gave Americans $5,000 per year inflation instead.”

Biden spawned the highest rate of food inflation since the Nixon administration, but he scoffed when a CNN interviewer recently asked him about the 30 percent rise in grocery prices. Biden ridiculously declared of consumers, “They have the money to spend!” Exiled whistleblower Edward Snowden quipped that the White House was trying to defuse anger by “telling people no, no, a shopping cart full of groceries has always cost $36,000.”

Biden’s pro-inflation policies divided Americans between those who work for a living and those who vote for a living. In  2021, Biden boasted, “Even after accounting for inflation … our families have more money in their pockets than they did before the pandemic.” Putting more unearned dollars in people’s pockets was a windfall for politicians, but it worsened economic disruptions. Besides, it was scant consolation to have more dollars that purchase less and less each month.

Experts kindly offered plenty of financial remedies to hard-pressed Americans. For Thanksgiving 2021, the Federal Reserve recommended that people rely on soybean-based dinners instead of turkey — saving 76 cents a serving. Georgia Democratic Party leader Stacey Abrams touted abortion as a cure for inflation: “Having children is why you’re worried about your price for gas, it’s why you’re concerned about how much food costs. For women, this is not a reductive issue.” Professor Teresa Ghilarducci, in a Washington Post op-ed, recommended that families with an income less than $289,000 per year “adjust” to inflation by eating lentils instead of meat, ditching their car and taking public transit, and maybe letting their pets die. In October 2022, Biden implied that soaring food prices wouldn’t be a real problem if Americans bought no-name, store-brand Raisin Bran instead of Kellogg’s.

Biden’s media whores

Pro-Biden media outlets painted inflation as practically a divine blessing that Biden is bestowing on Americans. MSNBC tweeted, “Why the inflation we’re seeing now is a good thing,” while The Intercept went whole-hog on soaring milk prices: “Inflation is Good for You.”  The Washington Post editorial board rushed to absolve Biden: “The main reason inflation is at its highest level since 1982” is because “people continue to spend a lot of time at home” and demand more goods. MSNBC anchor Joy Reid claimed in November 2022 that inflation was a word that Republicans “taught people…. Most people would have never used that word ever in their lives are using it now because they’ve been taught it.” The same month, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen blamed inflation on citizens frustrated by lockdowns who “suddenly started splurging on goods.” Most pundits dismissed or disdained people who complained about how the 20+ percent inflation of the Biden era harmed their families. Author Tom Woods noted that leftists “are now mocking people who are concerned about price inflation by using the expression ‘burger too expensive.’”

NPR ran a tear-jerking piece headlined: “The Movement To Stick Inflation Blame On Biden.” After disparaging the “I did that!” stickers of Biden’s face being attached to gas pumps and other places, NPR lamented, “It’s not just vandals, pranksters, and TikTokers trying to stick inflation blame on Biden.” After admitting that real wages for workers fell 2.4 percent last year, NPR consoles, “It’s A Crummy Time To Be A World Leader.”

But inflation was much worse than Biden or the media admitted. Beginning in the 1980s, the formula for calculating inflation was revised dozens of times, almost always with a downward bias. The Consumer Price Index is skewed because it does not attempt to compare the price of the same basket of goods over time. Instead, federal officials concocted a gauge they claim measures a “constant level of satisfaction.” But who in hell made bureaucrats the supreme judges of happiness?

In addition to that bureaucratic fairy dust, the inflation formula was changed to severely underweight rises in housing prices, instead relying on “the new concept of homeowners’ equivalent rent, where the government would estimate how much it would cost to own your own house,” John Williams, the founder of Shadow Stats, observed. The average monthly mortgage payment on a median-priced home has doubled since Biden took office.

Larry Summers, Bill Clinton’s treasury secretary, observed that if the feds used the same inflation gauges during Biden’s administration that were used in the 1970s, Biden’s peak inflation would have been 18 percent, twice as high as the reported number and the highest inflation rate in U.S. history. Understating inflation permitted the Biden administration to deny much of the financial damage it inflicted.

Biden portrayed himself as inflation’s biggest victim. “Inflation is the bane of our existence,” Biden lamented to a talk show host in June 2022. Unfortunately, he was referring to inflation’s effect on his approval ratings, not the plight of average Americans struggling to pay for gas and groceries. When Peter Doocy of Fox News asked about the impact of inflation in January, Biden called him “a stupid son of a bitch.” The Biden administration presumed that giving more handouts to government dependents would ease the pain of self-reliant middle class families — perhaps by osmosis.

Economic hocus pocus

Biden’s policies were based the “Magic Bean School of Political Economy.” His policymakers favor Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) — the notion that government spending almost never has an adverse effect on the economy. MMT advocates believe there is practically no problem that cannot supposedly be solved by bigger gushers of free government money. A Washington Post headline captured the administration’s presumptions: “Biden’s big bet: That he can remake economy with no bad side effects” such as “less incentive to work.” But as USA Today reported, “Many people have permanently stopped working, depressing labor force participation” by millions of people. Labor force participation has fallen sharply since 2019.

MMT champions are adamant that the flood of new money is irrelevant to rising price levels. In a March 2022 speech to Democratic members of Congress, Biden raged at being blamed for inflation: “I’m sick of this stuff!… We have to talk about it because the American people think the reason for inflation is the government spending more money. Simply. Not. True.”

Biden sought to deflate the political peril by demagoguing against corporations for raising prices. After Russia invaded Ukraine, Biden found a new culprit: “Make no mistake, inflation is largely the fault of Putin.” But inflation was already at 7 percent before the invasion of Ukraine. Biden began denouncing the “Putin Price Hikes,” but polls showed that few Americans  swallowed that assertion. In June 2022, the Washington Post reported that Biden was blaming his White House aides for his problem with inflation: he “complained to aides that they were not doing a good job explaining the causes of inflation and what the administration is doing about it.”

In the final weeks of the 2022 midterm congressional campaign, Biden boasted of the impact of inflation — at least on voters pocketing federal checks. He told senior citizens in Florida, “On my watch, for the first time in 10 years, seniors are getting an increase in their Social Security checks.” In reality, Social Security benefits have increased every year since 2016. The White House tweeted: “Seniors are getting the biggest increase in their Social Security checks in 10 years through President Biden’s leadership.” Even CNN derided that comment, since Social Security benefits are linked to inflation by law. Actually, the benefit boost was the largest in 40 years.

According to Biden, “shrinkflation” — adjusting for inflation by selling smaller products for the same price — is a worse crime than anything his administration inflicted on the American people. Biden condemned corporations for “charging folks more and more for less and less.” In his 2024 Super Bowl ad denouncing shrinkflation, Biden declared, “The American public is tired of being played for suckers.” Politico reported, “The White House has been aggressively testing out the [shrinkflation] messaging on the airwaves and in internal polling ahead” of Biden’s State of the Union speech. But unlike governments that force people to pay more taxes for worse services, corporations cannot conscript their victims. Biden’s attempt to persuade Americans they were being crucified on a cross made of shrinking candy bars failed.

Biden sought to “fix” inflation the same way he “solved” other debacles: with brazen lies that presumed his listeners are either idiots or NPR junkies. As voters focused more on the losses of their purchasing power, Biden repeatedly declared in early 2024 that the inflation rate was 9 percent at the time he took office  — almost six times the actual rate. Biden’s credibility deteriorated even faster than the value of the U.S. dollar.

Policymakers ignored the devastation they inflicted. When asked during a January 2022 news conference about how “inflation affects different groups of Americans,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said he wasn’t “aware of … inflation literally falling more on different socioeconomic groups…. The point is some people are just really prone to suffer more.” Inflation sounded like a problem that therapists must solve. In reality, lower-income households spend a far higher percent of their income on food, gas, and heating their homes — three categories where prices have soared. A survey by Lending Club in early 2022 found that “61 percent of the U.S. population lived paycheck to paycheck, up seven percentage points since the first report in June 2021, including 77 percent of consumers earning less than $50,000.” In October 2022, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas reported that most American workers had suffered the harshest fall in wages in 25 years, including a “median decline in real wages” of more than 8.5 percent.

Biden’s attempt to portray himself as an innocent bystander to the destruction of value of the U.S. dollar was a disastrous flop. The president suffered political “death by a thousand price hikes,” as consumers blamed Biden each time they hit the gas pump or grocery store.

When Kamala Harris signaled that she would likely continue Biden’s policies across the board, voters recognized that she had learned nothing from Biden’s debacles. The Harris campaign believed that perpetually championing the right to abortion would guarantee them more than enough votes from women. But it turned out that “women buy milk and eggs more often than they get abortions.”

A century ago, Americans clearly recognized the moral implications of inflation. Vice President Calvin Coolidge bluntly declared in 1922: “Inflation is repudiation.” But it remains to be seen whether the inflationary torrent of recent years will awaken Americans to the folly of trusting Washington to not sabotage their personal independence or the nation’s prosperity.

Authored by Mike McDaniel via American Thinker,

Imagine you’re an operative for a government law enforcement agency gone Stasi. Your power over the lives of others is near-absolute. You can destroy anyone who even thinks of opposing you or your political masters. You no longer expose yourself to the dangers of pursuing real criminals, spies and terrorists. Soccer moms and Catholics are easy targets. You’re covered. You can violate the law and Constitution at will and violating the rights of Americans is your daily stock in trade. 

So pervasive is the corruption in your agency, it is daily routine to document it. You feel no need to hide evidence of lawlessness, even the commission of crimes, because that’s the status quo. Any vestiges of conscience, decency, accountability have long been wiped from your mind and your agency’s collective conscience and data banks. You’re invincible, and every additional violation of the Constitution, every violation of your oath, ensures there is no way to undo “our democracy” to which you’ve sold your soul.

And then, the unthinkable happens. Joe Biden exposes his dementia, and his handler’s lies and manipulations, on national TV. Even the Democrat/socialist/communist (D/s/c) media can’t cover for him anymore. It is suddenly possible free speech might be restored. Still, you’re sure the dam will hold. The mighty walls of deceit and intimidation you’ve built can’t fall.

And then, Kamala Harris, who has never won a primary, is anointed and God help you, she’s allowed to speak in public. Donald Trump is elected, Elon Musk and Big Balls are appointed and allowed to run rampant in previously untouchable files, and the walls come a tumblin’ down.

There’s only one thing left to do before you’re fired, your security clearance is revoked and you’re locked out of all access to your previous tools of blackmail, extortion and power: destroy the evidence!

Journalist Michael Shellenberger has exposed so much corruption over the past several years, we’ve learned that when he drops a bomb on Twitter, it’s usually worth paying attention to and it is usually HUGE. 

From the scandal of the Twitter files to the lies and falsified research at WPATH regarding ‘gender-affirming care’ to, most recently, the fraud he documented at USAID, when Shellenberger announces something, we tend to listen.

His latest nuke dropped on Twitter involves the FBI. This news is early in development and he has only written very briefly about it so far, but it sure sounds like he — and a noted FBI whistleblower — have some interesting and incriminating things to say to Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and newly named Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino. 

Shellenberger was prompted to post the tweet amid a conversation between Rep. Anna Paulina Luna and conservative pundit Charlie Kirk involving corruption at the CIA and other intelligence agencies … and whatever sick things are going on at the NSA right now.

The whistleblower Shellenberger mentioned in his tweet is former FBI agent Garrett O’Boyle, who previously testified before Congress about the weaponization of the FBI under the Biden administration and the retribution the agency took on him and others for exposing its actions, despite whistleblower protection laws. 

Elon Musk was surely already aware of this, and with Kash Patel, is dealing with it. His one word comment speaks volumes:

I don’t presume to know computers on the level of Musk’s whiz kids, but I suspect this is right:

I share Shellenberger’s sentiment:

Generally speaking, anyone who destroys evidence of a crime becomes, at the least, an accessory after the fact to that crime even if they didn’t actively participate in it. With such people, there is always the possibility of conspiracy charges, and depending on the nature of the crimes, treason. The FBI is a primary agency charged with defending national security, and our enemies offer many temptations for those willing to betray America beyond the perks and power of being an American Stasi.

Cutting the infection out of the federal government was always going to be a herculean task. We’re discovering, day by day, just how daunting it is and only massive arrests and prosecutions of every one of those who have betrayed America can have any hope of deterring future offenses.

If people like O’Boyle, all the other whistleblowers and Shellenberger aren’t eventually lauded as genuine heroes, we’ll know the Swamp has not really been reformed. God help us if it isn’t.

Crushing “our democracy” and restoring our representative, constitutional republic depend upon it.

On a different subject, if you are not already a subscriber, you may not know that we’ve implemented something new: A weekly newsletter with unique content from our editors for subscribers only. These essays alone are worth the cost of the subscription. 

Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor. 

Authored by George Citroner via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Even one hour of screen time per day significantly increases the risk of nearsightedness (myopia), especially for children, a new study suggests.

More Screen Time, More Risk

Researchers found that spending an additional hour per day (past the first) watching screens was associated with a 21 percent increase in the odds of someone developing nearsightedness.

The study analyzed data from 45 different studies involving more than 335,000 participants to find a complex relationship between screen time and nearsightedness risk. The analysis collected data from various digital devices such as smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, computers, and television sets, which were collectively referred to as digital devices.

The findings of the systematic review and meta-analysis, recently published in JAMA Network Open, highlight a growing concern over children’s screen usage.

“As children increasingly embrace smart devices at younger ages and spend more time on digital screens, there is an urgent need to better understand the association of digital screen time with myopia,” the researchers wrote.

In the United States, estimates show nearsightedness prevalence to be about 42 percent. Among children specifically, as much as 41 percent of children in urban areas and 16 percent of children in rural areas are living with the condition.

The results suggest that daily screen time should be limited to less than one hour to potentially reduce the risk of developing nearsightedness.

Building on Previous Research

A previous meta-analysis combining data from 11 studies that included 934 participants looking at the relationship between screen time on smart devices (such as smartphones or tablets) and nearsightedness revealed a significant link—time spent on smart devices alone was associated with a 26 percent increase in the odds of developing nearsightedness.

When this screen time was combined with computer usage, the odds increased by 77 percent.

However, another meta-analysis that analyzed screen time data separately for different categories found that time spent on computers and televisions was linked to nearsightedness, but time spent on smartphones was not.

The researchers involved in the new study noted that findings such as these highlight a need for more in-depth investigations into the safety threshold for digital device exposure.

Why the Increased Risk?

Nearsightedness occurs when the eye elongates from front to back. This causes light entering the eye to focus in front of the retina rather than directly on it, which makes distant objects appear blurry, optometrist Dr. Meenal Agarwal, owner of Pickering Town Centre Optometric Clinic, Stouffville Family Eye Care, and Promenade Optometric Clinic, told The Epoch Times.

“It’s counterintuitive,” she said. “But the theory is that focusing on close objects for extended periods can put stress on the eye’s focusing system, which may influence the shape of the eye, causing it to elongate more than it would naturally.”

She said this applies when looking at anything closer than 22 inches to the face.

When staring at a screen, your eyes are constantly focused on a fixed distance, usually one very close to your face. This prevents the natural switching between focusing on near and far objects that happens in a natural environment. This means your eyes maintain a consistent focus for extended periods, straining the muscles responsible for changing your eye’s focus and potentially contributing to nearsightedness because of the prolonged near focusing effort required.

Agarwal said this increased stress may also prevent the eye from fully relaxing when focusing on distant objects, which could lead to changes in how the eye grows over time.

Reducing Myopia Risk

To reduce children’s risk of developing nearsightedness, Agarwal recommended encouraging kids to spend more time outdoors.

“Studies have found that children who spend more time outdoors tend to have a lower risk of developing myopia,” she said. “This is because exposure to natural light and focusing on objects at various distances, as we do outdoors, may help prevent myopia.”

Agarwal recommended approximately two hours of outdoor time per day for both children and adults to help prevent or delay the onset of nearsightedness. Reducing near work and taking breaks while doing near work are also very important, she said.

To help relieve the strain of prolonged near work, Agarwal advised following the “20-20-20 rule,” which means taking a 20-second break and looking at something 20 feet away every 20 minutes.

“Lastly, if your child is already myopic, consider myopia control options with your eye doctor like myopia control glasses, contact lenses, or treatments like atropine eye drops,” she said. “These have all been proven to slow the progression of myopia.”

A federal judge has ruled that a lawsuit alleging that Facebook parent Meta favors hiring foreign workers over U.S. citizens can move forward.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler on Feb. 25 denied Meta’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit, which accuses the big tech giant of systematically preferring H-1B visa holders because it could pay them less than American workers.

The lawsuit, filed by three U.S. citizens, alleges that Meta’s hiring practices violate 42 U.S.C. § 1981(a) by discriminating against American citizens.

As Tom Ozimek reports for The Epoch Times, the lawsuit accuses Meta of abusing the H-1B visa program, which is intended to bring foreign workers into the United States to perform services in specialty occupations where there are insufficient U.S. workers.

The three plaintiffs allege they were passed over for jobs because Meta preferred to hire foreign H-1B visa holders to perform the work to maximize profit.

“When hiring for U.S. positions, Facebook considers United States citizens, lawful permanent residents (e.g., green card holders), and foreign citizens with proper work permits (e.g., H-1B or L-1 visa holders),” the plaintiffs’ complaint states. 

“But while visa holders make up just a fraction of the United States labor market, Facebook prefers to hire visa-dependent workers for certain U.S. positions, as it can pay these employees less than American workers performing the same work.”

The plaintiffs cited a separate lawsuit against Meta by the Department of Justice (DOJ) that accused the company of discriminating against U.S. workers by reserving certain positions for temporary visa holders, including those on H-1B visas. To resolve those allegations, Meta agreed to a settlement involving payment of a $4.75 million civil penalty to the U.S. government and up to $9.5 million to eligible victims of the alleged discrimination.

As part of that settlement, Meta also committed to revising its recruitment and hiring practices to ensure greater transparency and accessibility for U.S. workers.

The current lawsuit claims Meta continues to favor visa holders, citing workforce statistics showing that 15 percent of Meta’s U.S. workforce holds H-1B visas, compared to 0.5 percent of the overall U.S. workforce.

“These allegations support the plaintiffs’ overall complaint that they were not hired because Meta favors H-1B visa holders,” the judge wrote in her order.

Meta has denied the allegations and previously sought to have the case dismissed. It argued that the plaintiffs failed to prove any intentional discrimination or that they would have been hired if not for the alleged discrimination. The company also moved to exclude from the lawsuit any references to the DOJ case and the settlement. The judge rejected Meta’s arguments.

“The plaintiffs are correct: their complaint relies on more than the DOJ allegations, and allegations that Meta favored non-citizen employees in another context are relevant to the plaintiffs’ claim,” the judge wrote in the order. 

“The court finds that none of the material that Meta seeks to strike is ’redundant, immaterial, impertinent, or scandalous.’”

Meta also sought to pause the discovery process, arguing that it should not be required to turn over hiring data while its motion to dismiss was still pending. The judge also rejected that request, allowing the case to proceed.

Meta did not respond to a request for comment.

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has ordered the delay of a new rule updating the definition of “healthy” on food product labels.

The new Food and Drug Administration (FDA) final rule will not go into effect until April 28, a delay from the originally announced implementation date of Feb. 25, Kennedy said in an update on Tuesday.

Kennedy pointed to President Donald Trump’s recent executive order, which directs agencies to consider postponing the effective dates for pending rules to review them for “questions of fact, law, and policy that the rules may raise.”

“The temporary delay in the effective date until April 28, 2025, is necessary to give Agency officials the opportunity for further review and consideration of the new regulation, consistent with the memorandum described previously,” Kennedy said.

The FDA announced in late 2024 that it was updating the definition of healthy on food labels, in the first major revision since the FDA first defined the word in 1994.

“Given that nutrition science has evolved since the 1990s, this final rule updates the definition of ‘healthy’ to be consistent with current nutrition science and Federal dietary guidance to help ensure that consumers have access to more complete, accurate, and up-to-date information on food labels,” the agency said at the time.

Under the new definition, manufacturers could label certain foods as healthy that currently cannot be, such as salmon, while others that are currently eligible for a healthy label, such as sugary cereal, would become ineligible.

The framework established under the rule includes mandating that a vegetable product must have at least half a cup of a vegetable to be labeled healthy. A dairy product must have at least two-thirds a cup of dairy to meet the updated requirements.

Proteins such as eggs and some oils, including 100 percent oils, can also be labeled healthy under the rule.

The compliance date for the rule was to be February 2028. That date has not been changed, Kennedy said on Tuesday.

Manufacturers are welcome to start complying with the rule ahead of the compliance date, officials have said.

The FDA says the purpose of the healthy label is “to highlight those foods that, based on their nutrient levels, are particularly useful in constructing a diet that conforms to current dietary guidelines.”

Kennedy was recently confirmed by the Senate as health secretary. He campaigned as an independent presidential candidate on a “Make America Healthy Again” platform before dropping out of the 2024 race and endorsing Trump for president.

At Kennedy’s swearing-in ceremony, Trump said that his confirmed nominee “is going to lead a great national mission to make America healthy again.”

A new leftist entity calling itself The People’s Union USA is calling for Americans to refrain from spending a single dollar anywhere on Friday Feb. 28. Branded as an “Economic Blackout,” it’s intended to lash back against a bucketful of woes that include economic injustice, low wages, high interest rates, outsourced jobs, and the growing abandonment of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. It’s the first of several scheduled boycotts, with future ones targeting individual corporations.  

Here’s how 57-year-old founder and drum teacher John Schwarz describes the undertaking in an Instagram video: 

“For our entire lives, they have told us we have no choice … that we have to accept these insane prices, the corporate greed, the billionaire tax breaks, all while we struggle to just to get by.

February 28, the 24-hour economic blackout: no Amazon, no Walmart, no fast food, no gas, not a single unnecessary dollar spent … for one day, we are going to finally turn the tables.”

A grab-bag of dimwitted leftist celebrities have endorsed the Economic Blackout, from Stephen King to Bette Midler. From our own observations, the campaign appears to have gained meaningful traction across social media. Hitting “share” on a boycott post gives leftists a no-effort clicktivism outlet for their rage that’s mounting daily as they watch Donald Trump and Elon Musk take a sledgehammer to all that’s cherished in their warped ideology. 

Of course, the real question is whether it will turn into anything even barely perceptible in a $29 trillion economy. “A lot of people dismiss the idea, arguing that a one-day spending freeze won’t move the needle for major corporations or the broader financial system,” 9i Capital Group CEO Kevin Thompson told Newsweek. “And I agree — it’ll likely have a minimal direct impact.” 

That’s especially true when you consider that a one-day boycott means a great many purchases of earnest participants will merely be accelerated to Thursday or deferred to Saturday. Yawn. Then there’s the near-certainty that some right-wingers will intentionally spend money on Friday just for the fun of undermining the stunt. 

I’m buying a new 100″ TV on Friday!
What about you? pic.twitter.com/Dwra1LJNEa

— Vince Langman (@LangmanVince) February 26, 2025

As with any Marxist campaign, this one’s loaded with flawed logic, internal contradictions and questionable tactics. For example:

• Schwarz simultaneously rants that “mega corporations have driven up prices” and demonizes Walmart for “price gouging.” 
• While greedy corporations are among the group’s most-hated foes, Peoples Union USA doesn’t even want participants to spend money at small businesses on Friday — unless it’s for something essential. If the one-day “blackout” is supposed to hurt big businesses, that means the group is calling for pain to be inflicted on small ones too. 

The Peoples Union USA website itself offers a whole line of merchandise, with revenue pledged to “payroll” and other costs; we’re guessing the store will be open on Friday. In another contradiction, Schwarz discourages followers from using credit cards when buying essential items from anyone else — lest it create profits for banks — yet his own merchandise store offers credit cards as the first payment option. You can also pay via major corporations Google and Paypal.    

The group’s positively Antifa-esque, black goods include $29 Economic Blackout commemorative t-shirts and $69 flags. Taking a page from their Marxist playbook, ZeroHedge hereby arbitrarily declares that Peoples Union USA prices are SYSTEMICALLY UNJUST AND EXPLOITATIVE. Also, our store is much cooler.

The group says that, through Feb. 25, it’s raised $61,760 in donations accepted via GoFundMe or a PO Box in Ringwood, Illinois, a Chicago suburb. Schwarz should spend some of that money to improve his craptastic website, and particularly this barely readable, center-justified clusterf**ck of an FAQ page.

People’s Union USA has laid out a schedule of follow-on blackouts, with several that target various companies for an entire week at a time. Here are the dates, the targets and their alleged sins, if specified: 

• March 7-14: Amazon, which is apparently so manifestly evil that no rationale is needed 
• March 21-28: Nestle, for “water exploitation, child labor, and corporate greed” 
• March 28: Economic Blackout #2
• April 7-13: Walmart, for “price-gouging” (aka, highly affordable products) and “worker exploitation”
• April 18: Economic Blackout #3
• April 21-27: General Mills, for “food industry corruption and the poisoning of our families” 

Schwarz has ambitions to “unionize the people” by creating national nonprofit organization, hiring lawyers, lobbying legislators, and develop independent media channels. Here’s looking forward to a comically anticlimactic Friday.  

Authored by Amy Denney via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

It’s been a rough, cold season for Mike and Cindy Gorbett. Mike had such a severe case of bronchitis in December that he was still coughing when they traveled out of town on Jan. 31 for their granddaughter’s softball tournament.

When they arrived, he crawled into bed, exhausted with a worsening cough, and stayed there until it was time to go home. Cindy developed a cough the following day.

It didn’t take long for the couple to realize it wasn’t a run-of-the-mill virus. Their coughing and fatigue were sudden, intense, and worsened, so they headed to a walk-in clinic. Tests confirmed both had influenza A—the dominant strain wreaking havoc on millions of Americans this month.

“We still both have coughs. His cough is worse than mine. Mine is a little tickle you feel like you need to clear out but it never really clears out,” Cindy told The Epoch Times. It was the first time she’s been officially diagnosed with influenza.

This year, the Gorbetts are among at least 33 million Americans who’ve been sick with the flu, which has caused 430,000 hospitalizations and 19,000 deaths so far this season, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s the highest flu severity season since 2017–2018—affecting all age groups—and it’s not over yet.

That’s why experts say it’s important to adopt healthy habits that can help you prevent getting sick and manage your symptoms if you do catch a respiratory virus to avoid hospitalization.

When Is the Flu an Emergency?

Dueling social media posts among nurses in one community illustrate the complicated nature of managing influenza. One nurse advised people to recuperate at home, rest, and drink lots of fluids—to prevent spreading the virus and to alleviate an already-burdened health care system.

The other nurse criticized that approach, noting a local child’s death from the flu justifies taking a trip to the hospital if you don’t feel well.

Influenza differs from a common cold in that it comes on quickly with fever, chills, cough, sore throat, aches and pains, headaches, fatigue, and a runny or stuffy nose. A cold tends to have a gradual onset with a runny or congested nose.

Ms. Gorbett, who is a nurse in a health system but works offsite, knew influenza numbers were running quite high when she got sick. She received a system-wide email encouraging expedited discharges to make room for the high influenza admissions.

CDC data show influenza levels were extremely high or high in 45 states earlier this month. The week ending Feb. 15, showed 43,367 patients with influenza admitted to hospitals, down from 50,382 admitted the week prior.

It is important to reduce the influenza burden on hospitals that can have overcrowded emergency rooms, limited bed availability, and strained staff when flu numbers are high, said Lisa M. Lee, an infectious disease expert and senior associate vice president for research and innovation at Virginia Tech, told The Epoch Times.

However, she said unresolved symptoms may warrant a trip to urgent care or the emergency room—particularly during peak flu season in high-risk populations like the elderly and those with underlying health conditions. Of particular concern are high fevers that aren’t coming down, troubled breathing, and anything that feels extremely uncomfortable, she said.

“Even if you already know you have COVID or influenza, if it’s bad enough, go seek care. You might go there and you’re sent home, but if you go home and you continue to have a high fever or severe symptoms, go back.”

Prevent Hospitalization

Whereas colds don’t typically result in serious complications—like bacterial infections, pneumonia, and hospitalizations—the flu can pose these risks.

“Hospital care can be needed,” said Dr. David Brownstein, a family physician and holistic practitioner. “But my job is to keep someone out of the hospital and to not allow them to get close to where they can’t breathe.”

Maintaining optimal levels of nutrients—particularly vitamins A, C, and D—can support the immune system to protect against illness, according to Brownstein, author of “A Holistic Approach to Viruses.”

He’s used the same protocol for 25 years in his practice to aid the immune system in fighting viral illnesses, including COVID-19.

Researchers pointed out in a 2020 Nutrients study that vitamin D’s ability to ward off infection would be useful during the pandemic for both COVID-19 and influenza.

Vitamin C may also help prevent severe illness.

“Vitamin C is an essential substance for the human body. We can’t manufacture it. We have to get it in the diet. Every cell in the body needs vitamin C. Vitamin C requirements go up when we have illnesses, including viral illnesses,” he said, adding that his supplement protocol for viruses is “one of the best things I do in my practice,” said Brownstein.

Brownstein advises that adults take 1,000 milligrams of vitamin C every hour when flu symptoms first begin. For vitamin A, he suggests taking 100,000 international units (IU) daily, and for vitamin D, 50,000 IU. The protocol can be used for four days. He also recommends taking iodine, which has proven successful in reducing influenza transmission in animal studies, and boosting fluid intake—water with added electrolytes or salt.

While malnourished people are more susceptible to infections, megadoses of single vitamins aren’t proven to help the immune system. Micronutrient deficiencies—including vitamins A, B6, C, and E, among others—alter the human cellular immune response.

Micronutrients ensure the body’s mucosal barriers and immune cells are working correctly. Children, the elderly, and those whose immune system is compromised by infection, stress, or pollution may need higher micronutrients, according to a review published in Nutrients, particularly vitamins C and D and zinc.

Effective ways to strengthen your immune system may include:

• Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables
• Quitting smoking
• Exercising regularly
• Maintaining a healthy weight
• Avoiding heavy alcohol use
• Getting plenty of sleep
• Minimizing stress
• Getting vaccinated with the flu shot

Read the rest here…

And pick up some IQ Biologix Emergency Immune Support here…

Television magnate David Smith’s purchase of The Baltimore Sun last year has reshaped the paper’s editorial direction, focusing on crime coverage in Brandon Scott’s crime-ridden Baltimore City and critiquing Maryland’s radical Democratic leadership in Annapolis. Under Smith’s ownership, the newspaper has intensified its scrutiny of radical progressive policies, contributing to twin economic and energy crises. Further exacerbating Maryland’s challenges, the Department of Government Efficiency’s downsizing of the federal bureaucracy is expected to spark significant economic headwinds for a state (such as credit downgrade) that relies heavily on federal workers and lacks any real sizeable private-sector economy. 

The absurdity in the sanctuary state that prioritizes illegal aliens and transgenders was realized in recent days when radical leftist lawmakers in Annapolis prioritized a bill to install condom machines in elementary schools. These unaccountable politicians purposely overlooked solving the energy crisis that is bankrupting Marylanders at a shocking rate. According to local outlet WMAR, out of 1.3 million power customers in Central Maryland, more than 264,000 are behind on their bills. 

Maryland Democrats are pushing a bill to put VENDING MACHINE CONDOMS in KINDERGARTEN

Literally beyond parody pic.twitter.com/Ynd5X15vzP

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) February 26, 2025

In addition, far-left Gov. Wes Moore is well over his head as he struggles with a budget crisis and death spiral that threatens to push the state into a “deep recession.”

Maryland’s Death Spiral: Reckless Democratic Lawmakers Spark Budget Crisis Fears As “Deep Recession” Looms https://t.co/reReKpxTsN

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) November 28, 2024

Returning to Smith’s transformation of The Baltimore Sun, which now delivers quality commentary on local politics that Marylanders actually want to read instead of years of toxic wokeism, a guest op-ed by House Minority Leader Jason Buckel (R) and House Minority Whip Jesse Pippy (R) titled “Democrats Don’t Have Answers for Maryland’s Energy Crisis” highlights Maryland Democrats are “clearly in denial” that their policies have backfired and risks the Illinois 2.0 moment.

How times have changed for the local paper – now offering readers critical op-eds on Democrats: 

Many Democrats in Annapolis — from the governor to the House and Senate leadership — are clearly in denial. First, we saw it with the budget deficit — some Democrats attempt to blame former Gov. Larry Hogan, and others insist that the $10 billion Blueprint for Maryland’s Future plan has not contributed to the shortfall. Now, as Maryland’s ratepayers are getting crushed under the weight of high electricity costs, Maryland Democrats are, in the governor’s case, ignoring the problem or, in the case of the General Assembly, feigning shock, blaming others and offering false “fixes.”

For many years, Maryland ratepayers have been the metaphorical frog in the pot of water. Through their reckless environmental policies that sacrifice our ratepayers on the altar of clean energy, the Democrat-controlled General Assembly has been gradually increasing the pressure on energy prices. Now, those rates have spiked at a time of increased usage, and our ratepayers are finding themselves in boiling-hot water.

In response to the outcry from families crushed by high energy bills, those who have advocated for the foolish policies responsible for these rate hikes have offered a series of measures they claim will provide affordable, reliable energy to lower utility bills. That sounds great, but the reality is these measures do not achieve any of those goals — they merely double down on Maryland’s green energy obsession that got us here in the first place.

The Next Generation Energy Act (H.B. 1035) declares the state’s support for nuclear energy while offering no incentives for nuclear investment and discouraging new nuclear projects with expensive labor construction requirements and unnecessary DEI policies that do nothing to reduce energy costs. It also includes provisions for natural gas plants, but only those with a long-term plan to convert to hydrogen or biofuel, making the projects less feasible and more costly. These policies won’t provide immediate or long-term relief to ratepayers.

Another of the Democratic leadership’s bills, the Renewable Energy Certainty Act (H.B. 1036), furthers the push for more solar farms but restricts local governments’ ability to manage them. It also makes rooftop solar systems more expensive by adding regulatory burdens on both systems and installers, ultimately doing nothing to help ratepayers reduce their energy bills.

The Energy Resource Adequacy and Planning Act (H.B. 1037) expands state government to create the Integrated Resource Planning Office within the Public Service Commission (PSC) tasked with developing a 25-year comprehensive energy forecast. The bill also requires the PSC to adopt regulations requiring power companies to develop an integrated resource plan. While increased planning may be a good idea, the priority of this measure is clean energy, while affordable rates are again an afterthought. This is yet another piece of legislation that places the needs of Maryland’s families and businesses after the needs of Maryland’s Democratic leaders to please the ever-present green movement in Annapolis.

Over the last six years, Maryland has lost 6,000 megawatts of energy generation through the closure of fossil fuel power plants, not including the pending closures of Brandon Shores and H.A. Wagner power plants. Over that time Maryland has only gained 1,600 megawatts of new energy generation. Maryland imports over 40% of our energy needs from out-of-state locations. This energy deficit has been exacerbated by a demand surge brought on by the electrification policies pushed by the Democratic leadership, who simply ignore the benefit of natural gas and other proven energy sources. Nothing in the leadership’s plan makes any of this better. The hard reality is that providing immediate rate relief to Marylanders in the short term is a daunting task. This problem was created over many years with the passage of numerous pieces of reckless legislation. Significant damage has been done to our energy market and it will take time and willingness to reverse these policies and even longer to bring new energy generation online.

The best way to end Maryland’s energy crisis is to end our obsession with green energy and its impossible and expensive goals. The members of the House Republican Caucus are offering numerous initiatives to end Maryland’s expensive green energy addiction. This includes legislation exempting public safety buildings from green energy requirements, prohibiting state and local governments from increasing energy costs through frivolous global warming lawsuits, limiting the provisions of the Climate Solutions Now Act to the extent economically practicable, and eliminating costly “green energy” subsidies that show up on your utility bill. We all want clean energy — but people have to be able to afford it. Until that day comes, all options have to be on the table.

Local lawmakers Buckel and Pippy, who penned the op-ed, should’ve added a section about the DOGE-related disaster coming down the pipe that will likely create even larger headaches for the state locked in a dangerous death spiral.

As we’ve previously noted, our recent conversation with a large asset management firm in the region revealed the state’s dire fiscal situation and how their clients are being told not to add Maryland munis to their bond portfolio. Some clients are being advised to find residency in conservative states amid fears Democrats will enact out-of-control tax hikes as the state implodes. 

What a shitstorm. This is what happens when leftist activists run the state – not actual managers – everything turns to shit.