Back in February, economists and strategists were stunned by the February UMichigan consumer sentiment survey which indicated an absolutely ridiculous surge in 1Yr inflation expectations (from 3.3% to 4.3%), but not because everyone expects more inflation but because Democrats now expect something approaching hyperinflation at 5.1%, even as Republicans expect 0.0% inflation in 1 year (and how the average of these two adds up to 4.3%, maybe socialist UMich “professor” Justin Wolfers can tell us). Yet despite the clearly political, and thus unreliable, nature of the print the market moved dramatically, and hundreds of billions of market cap was wiped out as stocks sold off on fear of more Fed tightening in coming months.

Just because the number was so galactically stupid, we said that when the NY Fed’s inflation expectations printed last month that they would show an unchanged print and “dunk on the UMich idiocy.”

Watch as NY Fed 1Yr inflation expectations are flat and dunk on the Umich idiocy.

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) February 10, 2025

That’s precisely what the Fed revealed when it confirmed that far from soaring, 1-Year inflation expectations were not only unchanged at 3.00% – as we said they would be – but they came in below the median analyst estimate of 3.1%.

So fast forward one month to today, when this time we didn’t even bother to dunk on the ridiculously useless and politicized UMich “data”, and instead we knew that the latest NY Fed numbers would show continued normalization, and that’s precisely what happened, when according to the New York Fed’s survey of consumer expectations, inflation expectations at the one-year horizon were just barely higher at 3.1% in Feb. from the previous month’s 3.00%. At the same time, both 3Y and 5Y inflation expectations were unchanged! So much for some imaginary surge in inflation.

As a result, the gap in 1 Year inflation expectations between the NY Fed survey and the UMich survey – which will deliver its latest pile of steaming horse shit “data” later this week – has exploded so wide…

… even WSJ Fed mouthpiece Nikileaks Timiraos was compelled to comment on it for the second month in a row (and mock it).

That big jump in inflation expectations in the U-Mich survey? It isn’t registering in the NY Fed’s consumer survey for February.

Median 1-year-ahead inflation expectations increased by 0.1 pp to 3.1% and were unchanged at the three-year and five-year horizons (both at 3.0%) pic.twitter.com/uUc7YE5gBz

— Nick Timiraos (@NickTimiraos) March 10, 2025

And for those who claim that this is all due to confusion by the respondents, the NY Fed dunked on that as well, reporting that the the measure of disagreement across respondents (the difference between the 75th and 25th percentile of inflation expectations) decreased at the one-year horizon and was unchanged at the three- and five-year horizons.

 The report also showed that Americans now see faster price growth for gas, food, medical care and rent. Taking a closer look at the composition, year-ahead commodity price expectations increased for all commodities. Median expected price growth increased by 1.1 percentage points for gas to 3.7% (its highest level since June 2024), 0.5 percentage point for food to 5.1% (its highest level since May 2024), 0.4 percentage point for the cost of medical care to 7.2%, 1.0% percentage point for the cost of a college degree to 6.9%, and 0.7 percentage point for rent to 6.7%.

Rising inflation expectations are not just bad news: in deed, the median home price growth expectations increased by 0.1% point to 3.3%, suggesting household believe they will have more home equity in the future. That said, this series has been moving in a narrow range between 3.0% and 3.3% since August 2023.

While expectations of inflation rose ever so slightly, consumers seem to be more pessimistic about their finances, and according to the latest survey, consumers’ year-ahead expectations about their households’ financial situations deteriorated considerably as the share of households expecting a (somewhat or much) worse financial situation one year from now rose to 27.4%, its highest level since November 2023.

At the same time mean unemployment expectations, or the mean probability that the U.S. unemployment rate will be higher one year from now, jumped up by 5.4% to 39.4% in February, its highest reading since September 2023.

Workers were also more downbeat about their job prospects. The average probability of quitting a job in the next year — typically a sign of how confident consumers are in the labor market — fell to 17.6%, the lowest level since July 2023. The odds of finding a job in three months after becoming unemployed also declined, remaining below its 12-month average.

Aside from the job market, the report showed consumers dimmed their outlook for the stock market. The expected probability that stock prices will be higher in a year fell again to just 37%, the lowest since December 2023.  

Finally, a larger percentage of consumers, 14.56% vs 13.32% in prior month, expect to not be able to make minimum debt payments over the next three months

There was some good news: the survey found that the mean perceived probability of losing one’s job in the next 12 months dropped by 0.1% to 14.1%, after increasing by 2.3% in January, to 14.2%, which at the time was the highest since July

Here are some more observations from the latest survey, first looking at the Labor Market:

• Median one-year-ahead earnings growth expectations were unchanged at 3.0% in February. The series has been moving within a narrow range between 2.7% and 3.0% since January 2024.
• Mean unemployment expectations—or the mean probability that the U.S. unemployment rate will be higher one year from now—jumped 5.4 percentage points to 39.4%, its highest reading since September 2023. The increase was broad-based across age, education, and income groups.
• The mean perceived probability of losing one’s job in the next 12 months decreased by 0.1 percentage point to 14.1%. The mean probability of leaving one’s job voluntarily (expected quit rate) in the next 12 months decreased by 2.3 percentage points to 17.6%, its lowest reading since July 2023. The decrease in the expected quit rate was broad-based across education and income groups.
• The mean perceived probability of finding a job in the next three months if one’s current job was lost decreased by 0.3 percentage point to 51.2%, remaining below its trailing 12-month average of 52.5%.

… and Household Finance

• The median expected growth in household income increased by 0.1 percentage point to 3.1% in February. The series has been moving in a narrow range between 2.9% and 3.3% since January 2023.
• Median nominal household spending growth expectations rose by 0.6 percentage point to 5.0%, moving just above its trailing 12-month average of 4.9%. The increase was broad-based across age, education, and income groups, but most pronounced for those with at most a high school education and those with an annual household income below $50,000.
• Perceptions of credit access compared to a year ago showed a larger share of households reporting it is harder to get credit, and a smaller share reporting it is easier. Expectations for future credit availability deteriorated considerably in February, with the share of respondents expecting it will be harder to obtain credit a year from now increasing to 46.7% from 35.6%. This reading is the highest since June 2024.
• The average perceived probability of missing a minimum debt payment over the next three monthsincreased by 1.3 percentage points to 14.6%, the highest level since April 2020. The increase was driven by those without a college degree and largest for those under age 40.
• The median expectation regarding a year-ahead change in taxes at current income level increased by 0.2 percentage point to 3.4%.
• Median year-ahead expected growth in government debt decreased by 1.0 percentage point to 5.0%, the lowest reading since July 2017.
• The mean perceived probability that the average interest rate on saving accounts will be higher in 12 months increased by 0.4 percentage point to 25.4%.
• Perceptions about households’ current financial situations compared to a year ago were mostly unchanged, but year-ahead expectations about households’ financial situations deteriorated considerably. The share of households expecting a worse financial situation in one year from now rose to 27.4%, the highest level since November 2023.
• The mean perceived probability that U.S. stock prices will be higher 12 months from now dropped by 3.3 percentage points to 37.0%, the lowest level since December 2023.

More in the full survey available here.

Authored by Jame Howard Kunstler,

CBS 60-Minutes’ Gaslighter-in-Chief Scott Pelley was at it again Sunday night trying to put over the story that Donald Trump had unfairly cashiered a broad swathe of federal agency Inspectors General — whose job it is to investigate crime, mischief, and administrative malfeasance. In the spotlight sat one Hampton Dellinger, Special Counsel to the independent Office of Special Counsel, who just resigned after a court battle over his firing weeks ago.

Do you have any idea what a laugh riot that is? Dellinger’s job was to protect whistleblowers and enforce the Hatch Act (against public employees engaging in partisan political activities). Would you say he did a great job protecting FBI whistleblowers who testified before Congress last year — say, FBI agents Marcus Allen, Garret O’Boyle, and Steve Friend? They were suspended without pay, not allowed to seek other employment, lost homes, were financially wrecked, and hung out to dry by then-FBI boss Christopher Wray. Was Hampton Dellinger heard to make a peep about that? (Nope.) So much for protecting whistleblowers.

You can state categorically that thousands of federal employees have been engaged in what they call “the Resistance” since the first Trump administration. They openly advertise themselves as the Resistance. The Resistance is simply and purely Democratic Party activism. How is that not a violation of the Hatch Act? Hampton Dellinger did not notice any of it. Maybe that’s why he got fired, ya think?

About those many Inspectors General fired from the various agencies. . . considering what is now known about the fantastic racketeering operations run during the Biden years — e.g., the USAID money laundry, the gazillion dollars flushed through the EPA to grifters such as Stacey Abrams under the Inflation Reduction Act’s climate change provisions, the vast royalties paid to NIH employees by Pharma companies for aiding in their product development — do you think the Inspectors General have done a bang-up job of protecting the US public against waste, fraud, and crime? (Maybe not so much, ya think.)

Of all the IGs, Michael Horowitz of the DOJ has been in place since 2012 and mysteriously remains on the job. He was on-the-scene through the entirety of RussiaGate, including the Crossfire Hurricane flimflam, the immense mischief perpetrated in the FISA Court, the whole run of the deceitful Mueller Special Counsel op, the 2020 election fraud, the FBI-sponsored J-6 riot (and the DNC / RNC pipe bomb caper), the Hunter Biden laptop shenanigans (and Biden Family bribery scheme), the feckless Durham investigation (on the origin of RussiaGate), and the matrix of lawfare cases launched by Merrick Garland against Mr. Trump in the 2024 election year. Seems like Mr. Horowitz missed a few things. How would you rate his Inspector General-ship? And why is he still in that office?

By now, you might have grokked that there is another side to the story presented by Scott Pelley, whose mission is to get the deranged half of the American public to go boo-hoo over ersatz threats to Our Democracy. 

Which might lead you to ask: how and why, exactly, is CBS so deeply invested in protecting the Administrative State (let’s call it) from allegations of corruption?

Answer: CBS is the servant of the US Intel Community and its blob tentacles. They are captured. They do as they are told for their masters.

As it happens, Mr. Trump launched a $20-billion lawsuit against CBS last October for fiddling with the interview that candidate Kamala Harris did on 60-Minutes in such a way that it presented a false record of her answers in order to boost her floundering election campaign. So, let’s suppose we have been seeing CBS play a game of hardball against Mr. Trump, consistently painting the once-again president as a villain in case presiding U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk in the Northern District of Texas happens to have nothing better to do on Sunday evenings than watch 60-Minutes, out of sheer habit, like so many Americans.

Notice that you haven’t heard a whole lot for two weeks from AG Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel. 

They have had their hands full attempting to clean up big messes in the Southern District of NY’s DOJ office and its companion, the Manhattan FBI office, where many lawyers and agents have been fired in recent days. Among other things, the FBI office in New York supposedly sat on reams of evidence in the Jeffrey Epstein case. Much flappery has been made over that. But, considering Mr. Epstein’s service to the Intel blob, and its political servants especially, is it really plausible that any truly significant evidence remains?

The FBI raided Epstein”s Manhattan townhouse in July, 2019. They found CDs and hard drives galore and lots of photos of underage girls. None of the videos ever managed to leak out.

Do you find that suspicious, considering how sensationally incriminating they would have been? Would you guess that is because they were destroyed? 

Personally, I wouldn’t expect much now.

But I do expect Ms. Bondi and Mr. Patel to develop a great many cases out of the aforesaid far-ranging corruption — overlooked by all those Inspectors General — that occurred throughout government at least since 2016, and probably involving a whole lot of well-know names, including Presidents Obama and Biden. 

It takes a lot of time and care to construct cases worth bringing to grand juries. Also consider that Dan Bongino will not take up his duties as FBI Deputy Director until March 15. 

As it happens, Mr. Bongino wrote several books about RussiaGate and its spin-offs. 

He will have a pretty good idea of exactly where to look and who to talk to, and he will be in-charge of making that happen. 

Be patient.

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

It’s only March, and we have yet another declaration of a “constitutional crisis.”

The latest dire declaration comes from roughly 950 law professors, who refer generally to actions and policies implemented by President Trump as “beyond his constitutional or statutory authority.”

So — what happens if the “experts” hold a crisis and no one shows up?

After years of such claims, the perpetual crisis has left a dwindling number of people inclined to panic. Many simply have more pressing matters at the moment and have the same reaction of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger: “There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full.”

The latest letter follows a familiar pattern that has played out like a political perpetual motion machine since the first Trump impeachment. It works something like this: A legal academy composed of largely liberal academics announces a “constitutional crisis” caused by conservatives, and then a largely liberal media runs the story with little scrutiny or skepticism. On most echo-chambered media sites, the public rarely hears an opposing view.

The purging of conservative and libertarian faculty from most universities has been a long-standing problem. In self-identified surveys, professors confirm that some departments lack a single Republican. A study by Georgetown University’s Kevin Tobia and MIT’s Eric Martinez found that only 9 percent of law school professors in the top 50 law schools identify as conservative.

Law schools are not unique. A survey conducted by the Harvard Crimson shows that more than three-quarters of Harvard Arts and Sciences and School of Engineering and Applied Sciences faculty respondents identified as “liberal” or “very liberal.” Only 2.5 percent identified as “conservative,” and only 0.4 percent as “very conservative.” A 2017 study found that only 15 percent of faculty members were conservative. Another analysis found that 33 out of 65 departments lacked even a single conservative faculty member.

In other words, it is embarrassingly easy to get 1,000 law professors to sign off on letters claiming endless constitutional crises caused by Trump or conservatives.

Those letters are then fed to eagerly awaiting media outlets. The perpetual machine then whirls and spins as liberal professors feed liberal reporters, who then feed liberals in Congress, who cite the unchallenged consensus of academia and the media.

The New York Times rushed the news to its viewers that “Trump’s Actions Have Created a Constitutional Crisis, Scholars Say.” The Times interviewed Berkeley Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, who previously called the conservative justices “political hacks” and just published a book titled “No Democracy Lasts Forever: How the Constitution Threatens the United States.”

Chemerinsky breathlessly explained “We never have seen anything like this.”

The problem is that we have. 

Presidents often negate the prior executive orders of their predecessors, fire their appointees and implement sweeping new changes. Those actions are frequently challenged and some are found to be procedurally or substantially unlawful. Others are upheld.

President Biden was repeatedly found to have violated the constitution without most of these signatories expressing a peep of concern over the mounting “crisis.”

Indeed, some pushed for unconstitutional actions against the overwhelming views of legal experts.

.Take Harvard Professor Laurence Tribe, who also signed this letter to express alarm at Trump pushing the Constitution to the breaking point. Tribe has attacked conservatives in profane diatribes and supported packing the Supreme Court to engineer a liberal majority.

When Biden wanted to circumvent Congress and implement billions in student loan forgiveness payments before the election, Tribe was there. Even former Speaker Nancy Pelosi admitted that Biden could not constitutionally wipe out hundreds of millions of dollars of student loans without congressional action. However, Tribe assured President Biden that it was entirely legal.

It was found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court and lower courts.

When Biden wanted to impose a national eviction moratorium, he admitted that his own lawyers told him that it would be flagrantly unconstitutional. Pelosi then told him to call Tribe, who assured Biden he had the authority to act alone.

This was also quickly found to be unconstitutional.

Biden was also found to have engaged in racial discrimination and other flagrant constitutional violations.

Of course, none of that is a crisis, and none of these signatories ran to blast fax a letter to the legal academy.

Other signatories, such as Professor Heidi Li Feldman, have declared that conservative justices and lawyers are “lawless” due to their opposing constitutional views. 

She has called upon law professors not to fall “into complicity with lawlessness.” In other words, conservative jurisprudence, followed by roughly half of the bench, is simply unacceptable and should not be recognized.

If you view conservatives judges and justices as “lawless,” then every decision that they issue can be construed as a “crisis” in failing to adopt your own interpretive approach.

There are good-faith reasons to challenge some of Trump’s actions, as there were under Biden. I have criticized some of those measures. However, Trump has repeatedly pledged to follow adverse court orders while he seeks appeals. That is precisely what he did in his first term, where he complied with opposing rulings, including some issued by his own appointees.

Trump is also prevailing in some of these cases and will likely prevail in many others. Democratic groups have forum-shopped around the country to bring challenges before favorable judges. Some have issued injunctions, while others have not. Others have already been reversed.

For example, the media made great fanfare over restraining orders issued to limit the actions of Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency. Less coverage was given to later opinions reducing those orders or setting them aside, including a recent order refusing to bar Trump from firing many government employees at USAID.

Likewise, the media and many professors lionized Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger for suing to stop Trump’s firing. When Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington issued her opinion, some of us expressed skepticism over her cited legal authority. Within four days, the D.C. Circuit had reversed her, ruling for Trump. Dellinger then dropped his own case rather than multiply adverse rulings.

None of this means that Trump will prevail in most such lawsuits or that these are not good-faith challenges. However, the record does not suggest a constitutional crisis. It suggests the opposite — a constitutional system that continues to function efficiently and fairly.

The real “crisis” seems to be that Trump is winning in some of these cases. To make matters worse, he is complying with adverse rulings. After an election where many of these same voices declared the imminent death of democracy if Trump were elected, the constitutional system seems to be, inconveniently and stubbornly, very much alive and well.

Of course, opposing these actions on policy or conventional legal grounds would generate little press. It has to be a “crisis” to get headlines and segments on cable news. Stanford law Professor Pamela Karlan and co-signatory described Trump as different, a president “for whom the Constitution [is] essentially meaningless.”

Karlan, who previously testified in favor of impeaching Trump in his first term, ignores the fact that our system does not depend on how Trump feels about the Constitution, even if she did have an insight into his inner self. We have the oldest and most successful constitutional system because it does not rely on the good motivations or values of those in government. It has survived centuries with often hostile presidents due to its checks and balances.

In the end, the seeming unanimity is not reflective of the merits but the membership of the legal academy. From calls to pack the court to curtailing free speech to trashing the Constitution, law professors are like priests who have kept their frocks while losing their faith. And their crisis of faith is the only crisis these professors are facing.

*  *  *

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. He is the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.” 

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

A U.S. regulator said on March 7 that banks can engage in some activities related to cryptocurrencies.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) clarified in a statement that the permitted activities include keeping hold of crypto assets and maintaining reserves for stablecoins, a class of crypto that features prices tied to other assets.

The OCC said it was rescinding a 2021 policy that set limits on when banks could hold crypto, including the requirement that banks must show they have controls in place to ensure they conduct the activity in a “safe and sound manner.”

“The OCC expects banks to have the same strong risk management controls in place to support novel bank activities as they do for traditional ones,” Acting Comptroller of the Currency Rodney E. Hood said in a statement. 

“Today’s action will reduce the burden on banks to engage in crypto-related activities and ensure that these bank activities are treated consistently by the OCC, regardless of the underlying technology. I will continue to work diligently to ensure regulations are effective and not excessive, while maintaining a strong federal banking system.”

The OCC previously issued a series of letters outlining its stance on crypto-related services.

In July 2020, the office said that banks could provide banking services to any lawful business, including crypto firms. In October 2020, the office said that banks can hold reserves from stablecoin issuers. In January 2021, the office said that banks could utilize technologies such as stablecoins to perform permitted functions, such as payment activities.

Later in 2021, though, the OCC said that banks could not engage in crypto-related activities until they notified its supervisory office that it intended to engage in the activities and had received approval from supervisors. The OCC also said that supervisors, before issuing approval, had to evaluate the bank’s systems and make sure the bank could safely engage in such activities.

That’s the position that the OCC has now reversed.

The OCC also said it was withdrawing from joint statements issued on crypto risks to banks, including a 2023 statement with the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation that said volatility in the crypto space meant there were key risks associated with the sector.

Crypto, including bitcoin, can serve as digital investments and payment methods. Bitcoin, with a limited supply of 21 million coins, also functions as a store of value similar to gold.

President Donald Trump has championed crypto and recently signed an order establishing a bitcoin reserve. The president told reporters that the foundation of the reserve will be the bitcoin seized from criminals.

Authored by Bill Pan via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The state of New York is looking to recruit federal employees in Washington who were recently laid off amid the Trump administration’s efforts to trim the federal workforce.

The advertisement for New York’s recruitment drive on March 3 appears on digital signboards inside Union Station, the busy train hub in the nation’s capital. It features the Statue of Liberty striking Uncle Sam’s iconic “I Want You” pose with the caption: “DOGE said you’re fired? We say you’re hired! New York wants you!”

The message refers to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a team led by entrepreneur Elon Musk and tasked by President Donald Trump with finding ways to reduce government spending and cut excessive regulations.

Advised by DOGE, Trump in the first five weeks of his second term has shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development and taken steps toward closing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Trump has also floated the idea of abolishing the Department of Education altogether.

As part of the administration’s restructuring, federal employees have been offered “deferred resignations,” which provide paid leave to those who voluntarily quit government service. At least 75,000 federal workers accepted the buyouts after a federal court allowed the initiative to continue.

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has directed agencies to review and terminate all probationary employees who are not deemed high-performing or mission-critical. According to government data maintained by OPM, as of March 2024, some 220,000 workers with less than a year of job experience fell into this category.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is hoping to attract these displaced federal workers to fill the vacancies in her government.

The Empire State employs about 180,000 workers but has more than 7,000 positions unfilled, according to Hochul’s office. Some of the most in-demand positions currently open include roles for attorneys, engineers, nurses, and IT specialists.

“[The] federal government might say, ‘You’re fired’—but here in New York, we say, ‘You’re hired,’” the Democratic governor said last week in a video message promoting the recruitment drive.

The Trump administration has dismissed New York state’s recruitment campaign as an attempt to expand an already bloated bureaucracy.

“Leave it to the failed New York state bureaucracy to stack their payrolls with more bureaucrats at the expense of the abused taxpayers of New York,” White House spokesperson Harrison Fields told The Epoch Times. “Growing the public sector is not President Trump’s definition of job creation.”

*  *  *

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New York is the latest state to reach out to Washington’s displaced federal workers. Maryland and Virginia, home to many of the affected individuals, have also put out their own recruitment and support campaigns.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, said on Feb. 28 that his administration is streamlining the hiring process to help displaced federal workers secure new government jobs. This initiative builds on an online job portal launched two weeks ago, designed to match former federal employees with available positions.

In Virginia, Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, has launched a new job website connecting job seekers to 250,000 available positions, including opportunities at companies such as LEGO, Micron, Amazon, Capital One, Liebherr Mining Equipment, and Electro-Mechanical.

The Virginia Employment Commission is also offering job placement support. The commission’s maximum unemployment benefit is $387 per week.

Youngkin announced the initiative while expressing support for the Trump administration’s federal agency overhaul.

“I actually have extraordinary empathy for the fact that there are many workers in Virginia today—from our federal workforce—who are experiencing real concerns,” he said at a Feb. 24 press conference.

“We have a federal government that is inefficient, and we have an administration that is taking on that challenge of rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse and driving efficiency in our federal government. It needs to happen.”

A civil rights debate has ensued following the Saturday arrest by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) of Mahmoud Khalil – a recent Columbia University graduate who has been described as a ‘ringleader’ in last year’s campus chaos in which activists took over Hamilton Hall, which led to an NYPD raid and mass arrests (which Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg dismissed).

Prior to coming to Columbia, Khalil “was a political affairs officer with UNRWA,” which the Trump administration just pulled the plug on, and which has been accused of ‘grooming terrorists.’

According to Zeteo.com, around 8:30 PM on Saturday, Khalil and his pregnant wife had just unlocked the door to their residence when two plainclothes DHS agents ‘pushed inside behind them,’ did not identify themselves at first, and then detained Khalil. They reportedly told his wife that if she did not leave her husband and stay in their apartment, they would arrest her too.

The agents claimed that the State Department had revoked Khalil’s student visa, with one agent presenting what he claimed was a warrant on his cell phone. But Khalil, according to advocates, has a green card. Khalil’s wife went to their apartment to get the green card.

“He has a green card,” an agent apparently said on the phone, confused by the matter. But then after a moment, the agent claimed that the State Department had “revoked that too.”

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin confirmed in a statement that ICE had detained Khalil “in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism,” claiming that Khalil had “led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.”

President Trump, meanwhile, said on Truth Social: “Following my previously signed Executive Orders, ICE proudly apprehended and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student on the campus of Columbia University,” adding “This is the first arrest of many to come. We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it.”

“Many are not students, they are paid agitators. We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country — never to return again.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio chimed in on X, writing “We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.”

We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported https://t.co/oKba2Mmi3C

— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) March 9, 2025

According to law professor Jonathan Turley, “In the Khalil case, he was reportedly under investigation for the takeover of the Columbia building while also serving as one of the negotiators. The takeover is not protected free speech. It is unlawful conduct that can and should be punished.”

Yes, I agree. Approved peaceful assembly should be protected. When it turns unlawful then arrests and deportation is appropriate. That should have always been the standard. It hasn’t been for some time which has emboldened them into lawlessness.

— griffitovic (@griffitovic) March 10, 2025

Free Speech vs. Antisemitism:

The arrest came one day after the Trump administration cut $400 million in grants to Columbia University over ‘antisemitism inaction,’  after members of the US Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism notified Columbia University’s Acting President of a comprehensive review of the university’s federal contracts and grants amid ongoing investigations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. 

The review follows reports of “chaos” and “anti-Semitic harassment” on campus since Hamas’ attack on Israel in October 2023.

As Zeteo notes further; 

In February – after Columbia president Katrina Armstrong met with Israel’s education minister, where they discussed taking firmer action on campus speech – Columbia’s Barnard College expelled three students for political activism for the first time since the 1968 protests. This week – as the school welcomed former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who once said, “I’ve killed many Arabs in my life, and there’s no problem with that,” to campus – NYPD arrested nine students involved in a campus sit-in.

Needless to say, this arrest has sparked a brewing debate over free speech (which the left suddenly embraces after years of silencing conservatives) vs. anti-American/Israel activities which included a violent riot.

Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) slammed the arrest on X, calling it “un-American” and “straight out of the fascist playbook,” while calling for Khalil’s release.

Do anti-Israel protesters, even ‘pro-Hamas’ individuals, pose a danger to Americans or US national security?

How should authorities respond to ‘ringleaders’ of protests that turn into chaos on college campuses?

And are these protests being funded by terrorist-affiliated groups, or George Soros?

Discuss below…

Authored by Jacob Burg via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on March 9 that President Donald Trump is likely to maintain his tariff pressure on Mexico, Canada, and China regarding their role in fentanyl trafficking into the United States.

“If fentanyl ends, I think these will come off. But if fentanyl does not end, or he’s uncertain about it, he will stay this way until he is comfortable,” Lutnick said in a Sunday interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“This is black and white. You got to save American lives.”

Lutnick added that 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum imports will take effect as scheduled on March 12. Both Canada and Mexico are leading exporters of the metals to the United States, with Canada responsible for most aluminum imports.

The commerce secretary also dismissed fears that the president’s global tariffs will lead to a recession in the United States.

“Absolutely not,” he said. “There’s going to be no recession in America.”

The tariffs will lead to higher prices for Americans on certain foreign-made goods, Lutnick said.

“Some products that are made foreign might be more expensive, but American products will get cheaper, and that’s the point,” he said.

While Trump resumed 25 percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada on March 4, he granted a one-month delay for any automakers that comply with the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA).

Additionally, oil and energy from Canada covered under that agreement will also be exempt from tariffs, while roughly 50 percent of goods leaving Mexico will remain subject to the 25 percent import tax.

“After speaking with President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico, I have agreed that Mexico will not be required to pay Tariffs on anything that falls under the USMCA Agreement,” Trump announced on Truth Social on March 6.

Canada has also modified its counter-tariffs on the United States, leaving $30 billion worth of tariffs it levied on American goods in place, but will be halting a planned second round of $125 billion in tariffs, Canadian Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc said.

That remaining round of tariffs has been postponed until April 2, the same day that Trump’s partial tariff exemption for Canada is set to expire.

Meanwhile, individual Canadian provinces are moving forward with their own tariffs.

Ontario is continuing with a 25 percent tax on electricity sent to roughly 1.5 million customers in three northern U.S. states beginning next week, Premier Doug Ford told Fox News in a March 6 interview. The province has also removed American alcohol from its provincially run liquor stores, is banning U.S. procurement contracts, and is canceling Ontario’s $100-million contract with tech billionaire Elon Musk’s Starlink internet service.

British Columbia has also removed American-made alcohol from its liquor stores and instituted a government-wide directive to limit buying American products.

Jennifer Cowan, Emel Akan, and Reuters contributed to this report.

The Trump administration has repurposed the controversial Biden-era ‘CBP One’ cell phone app into a self-deportation app called “CBP Home,” according to Fox News’ Bill Melugin.

Illegals who still have the CBP One app on their phones will receive an auto-update to the new app, while DHS can use data from prior CBP One registrations to track migrants for removal.

The new app allows illegal aliens and migrants in the US to register with CBP to self deport. They fill out biographical information, including their countries of citizenship, which country they plan to return to, their alien registration numbers, contact information, and it allows them to upload photos of themselves to confirm their identity. All of it is then submitted to CBP, and they leave the country. -Bill Melugin via X

“The CBP Home app gives aliens to option to leave now and self-deport, so they may still have the opportunity to return legally in the future and live the American dream. If they don’t, we will find them, we will deport them, and they will never return,” said DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. “The Biden administration exploited the CBP One app to allow more than one million aliens to enter the United States. With the launching of the CBP Home app, we are restoring integrity to our immigration system.”

According to DHS, it is significantly cheaper for the US if illegal aliens choose to self-deport, allowing the agency’s limited ICE resources to focus on targeting criminal aliens.

CBP data shows that roughly 40-50 thousand migrants were entering the US each month via the CBP One app during the Biden administration.

Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Modernity.news,

Top streamer Asmongold predicts that the sheer amount of violent threats being posted on Reddit will grease the skids for an Internet ID system that will end online anonymity.

Since Donald Trump took office, the far-left website has seen a massive uptick in threats of violence targeting Trump, people in his administration and conservatives in general.

Last month, Reddit temporarily banned multiple pages after users began posting threats aimed at staff working for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

“Time to hunt,” one user posted, while another asserted, “Lets drag their necks up by a large coil up rope.”

According to popular streamer Asmongold, the deluge of threats will provide a pretext for the government to mandate tying a person’s real identification to their online user accounts.

Asmongold predicts Internet ID could be coming soon due to the rhetoric on Reddit

“You have ppl that are upvoting and glorifying political violence all over this website…it’s completely become a radical terrorist breeding ground…these ppl are speedrunning internet real ID” pic.twitter.com/l24wE8cJ8K

— yeet (@Awk20000) March 9, 2025

“You have people that are upvoting and glorifying political violence all over this website and it’s completely become a radical terrorist breeding ground, like it’s actually insane how bad this is,” said the YouTuber.

He noted that the threats have escalated since UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot and killed by Luigi Mangione, who has become an icon for many on the extreme left.

Asmongold highlighted the irony of far-leftists spending years lobbying for mass censorship of conservatives then complaining when it gets used against them.

“Reddit is a very censorial website, they constantly ban people for things that are wrongthink…now these people are on the receiving end of it and they’re crying about free speech, but they were never crying about free speech when people they disagreed with were getting banned,” he said.

“It’s getting real bad, these people are speed running Internet Real ID, I just hope that they understand that,” said Asmongold, in reference to a system in dictatorships like China where Internet use is only permitted via a government ID which can be revoked at any time.

The streamer said that the “perfect amount of moderation” should be speech in line with First Amendment that is legal, in addition to banning any incitement to violence or doxxing.

“You just follow the law and you ban people based off of things they say that break the law,” said the YouTuber.

Asmongold said far-leftists spewing violence think they are “rebel heroes” but that “the only people they’re going to be heroes for is the government because the deep state government people are going to be able to justify a Real ID on the Internet.”

He added that if there are more terror attacks of a similar nature to the assassination of Thompson, “We’re absolutely gonna get Real ID on the Internet.”

*  *  *

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A new wave of refugees are fleeing Syria amid several days of sectarian-driven killings mainly targeting Alawites, and in some cases Christians, along the coastal areas in Tartus and Latakia governates.

Fresh reports say that over 10,000 Syrians have entered the Lebanese region of Akkar as nearly 20 villages have opened up to the displaced. More are said to be headed further south to the large Lebanese city of Tripoli.

Though Tripoli has long been Lebanon’s Sunni stronghold, one of its neighborhoods, Jabal Mohsen, has a large Alawite population – where many of the refugees are believed headed, possibly connecting with friends or relatives as well.

However, this could create new tensions in Lebanon, given that historically Lebanese and Syrians don’t get along very well, and economically depressed Lebanon can’t handle thousands more refugees settling within its borders.

Tripoli has in recent history seen its share of sectarian clashes, and Sunni radicals there are likely to resist a mass new influx of Alawites from Syria.

Egyptian HTS militants en route to Latakia.

“We will slaughter your fathers…Everyone is coming to the coast, wait for us, Alawites and Shias, all the fighters are Sunni and coming for you.” pic.twitter.com/O6JHNJwPaw

— Lindsey Snell (@LindseySnell) March 10, 2025

Currently there is some evidence that more jihadists are traveling to the Syrian coast to continue their ethno-religious cleansing campaign, despite public statements of the Jolani regime calling for an end to the attacks. Some pundits suspect that the killings have Jolani’s tacit approval.

They attackers are a mix of ruling Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) soldiers, as well as foreign fighters. Of course, the foreign fighters are allied with their follow Sunni radicals in HTS.

There have been reports of roads strewn with corpses…

🇸🇾 Al-Julani’s terrorist gangs are dumping civilian bodies in the mountains to cover up their crimes before UN inspection teams arrive. pic.twitter.com/FCjxQ3K03n

— DD Geopolitics (@DD_Geopolitics) March 10, 2025

Latakia and Tartus are the coastal heartland of Syria’s minority Alawite sect, which is also where the Alawite Assad family is from.

When large-scale Sunni Islamist attacks on Alawite villages began last Thursday and Friday, families desperate to flee the onslaught began seeking shelter at Russia’s Hmeimim airbase. 

🇸🇾 Thousands of Syrian Alawites and Christians flock to Hmeimim Airbase, seeking Russian protection. “We need Russian protection” can be heard among the crowd.

The airbase has effectively turned into an open-air refugee camp, with around 8,000 Syrians seeking shelter and more… pic.twitter.com/Eh7XgSi8YC

— DD Geopolitics (@DD_Geopolitics) March 8, 2025

Russian media cameras have been at Hmeimim and have confirmed that shelters have been set up for the thousands of displaced – who in many cases are afraid to return to their homes.

Below is a report from RT, documenting the large numbers of families seeking Russian protection amid the jihadist attacks…

Up to 8,000 Syrians currently take shelter at Russian Khmeimim base in country’s Northwest coast

Providing only safe place amidst reported HTS massacres pic.twitter.com/xLeI6QNDxi

— RT (@RT_com) March 9, 2025

Weekend reports said that over 1,000 civilians have died, with independent sources saying the death toll could be in the several thousands. In many villages, there are no cameras or media to document the killings, though in many cases the attackers themselves are filming their own atrocities.