Authored by Michael Snyder via TheMostImportantNews.com,

If you live in a warm home and you have plenty of food to eat, you should consider yourself to be extremely blessed, because millions of others are deeply suffering right now.  

Most of the country is living paycheck to paycheck, the number of homeless Americans is higher than ever, demand at food banks is back to pandemic levels, and many victims of Hurricane Helene are living in very thin tents and are not getting the help that they need from the government.  Children in the mountains of western North Carolina are literally shivering in the freezing cold all night long because their parents have nowhere else to go…

Nearly two months since Helene hit, hundreds of local families are left with nowhere to go.

Now some of these children are living in tents and cars as their parents try desperately to find a new home.

One of those parents is Dana Wunsch.

She showed News 13 the camper where she and her partner, along with her two daughters, are now staying.

We are taxed extremely hard, and one of the things that our tax dollars are supposed to pay for is disaster relief.

But while FEMA personnel in North Carolina are sleeping in heated trailers, many victims of Hurricane Helene are sleeping in extremely flimsy tents that look like they could literally be blown away at any moment.

Could you imagine having your kids sleep in a flimsy tent night after night?

And now snow has arrived in the mountains of western North Carolina…

Some survivors in western North Carolina have had to navigate their recovery efforts around potentially hazardous conditions as snowfall ranging from a light dusting up to about 2 feet has blanketed the area.

In addition to snow, those living in tents have also been facing very high winds…

Additionally, Helene survivors in western North Carolina will also have to manage with powerful winds. Wind gusts are expected to reach 30-40 mph in Asheville, while other areas may feel gusts of 50 mph or greater.

Of course Hurricane Helene is just one of the historic natural disasters that have hit our country here in 2024.

Overall, there have been 24 “billion dollar disasters” in the U.S. so far this year…

During the first 10 months of this year alone, 24 disasters have occurred in the U.S. with losses exceeding $1 billion, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information.

That’s roughly three times the average annual number since 1980.

Our nation just keeps getting pummeled over and over again.

Is there anyone out there that still believes that this is just a coincidence?

Meanwhile, the homelessness crisis in the U.S. just keeps getting worse, and there are millions more Americans that could soon be joining the ranks of the homeless.

If you can believe it, one recent survey discovered that 22 percent of all U.S. renters say that “all their regular income goes toward rent payments”…

22% of U.S. renters say all their regular income goes toward rent payments, according to a recent Redfin-commissioned survey. 19% of renters report they have worked a job they hated to afford rent.

Just over one in five (22%) U.S. renters say all of their regular income goes directly to paying their rent, according to a recent Redfin-commissioned survey.

Working a second job is also a fairly common way for renters to pay housing costs, with 20% of renters citing that method. Nearly the same share (19%) say they have worked a job they hated to afford rent.

If all of your income is going to paying rent, you are just one step away from being homeless.

Sadly, most of the country is just barely scraping by from month to month at this point.

According to Bank of America, from 2019 to 2024 there was a 10 percent jump in those that are living paycheck to paycheck…

The share of U.S. households living paycheck to paycheck has grown across all income brackets over the past five years, according to a new study from the Bank of America Institute.

A new analysis released by the think tank on Tuesday found that more than a quarter of Americans, 26%, have necessary expenses that chew up more than 95% of their takehome pay, and nearly a third, 30%, of households spend upwards of 90% of their income on critical bills like groceries, housing, utilities, gas, insurance and child care.

The data showed a 10% increase in those living paycheck to paycheck in 2024 compared to 2019.

Economic pain is all around us, and the cost of living just continues to go even higher.

Once upon a time, if you were making $50,000 a year you were doing well.

But now the average American believes that it takes an income of $270,000 a year in order to be “financially successful”…

The average American thinks a salary of just over $270,000 a year qualifies them as “financially successful,” but there are huge disparities between generations, according to a new study.

Needless to say, the vast majority of the population does not make that sort of money.

Instead, the vast majority of us are just trying to survive.

Unfortunately, the outlook for the year ahead is not good because our economic momentum is heading in the wrong direction very rapidly.

In fact, it is being reported that the Conference Board’s index of leading economic indicators has fallen for eight months in a row…

Weakness in the housing market and manufacturing, as well as higher jobless claims, pulled the leading indicators for the U.S. economy down for the eighth consecutive month in October.

The Conference Board said its index of leading indicators dropped 0.3 percent last month. The Conference Board pointed out that over the six-month period between April and October 2024, the index declined by 2.2 percent, slightly more than its two percent decline over the previous six-month period, suggesting that drags on the U.S. economy picked up.

If we are seeing such tremendous economic suffering now, what will conditions be like if the U.S. economy continues to deteriorate?

For decades, we have been living a debt-fueled standard of living that is way beyond what we have actually earned.

Now that bubble is starting to burst, and our society is not going to be able to handle it.

We are in far more trouble than most people realize, and an immense amount of pain is ahead of us.

*  *  *

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

Extending a prolonged trend of alleged misuse of funds by social justice warriors running leftist charities, an anti-police-brutality activist has been accused of spending $75,000 in charitable donations on himself, blowing the money on vacations, designer clothing and more. 

On Tuesday, Washington DC attorney general Brian L. Schwalb filed suit against Brandon Anderson and his nonprofit organization “Raheem AI,” which was launched in 2017 to provide “black, brown, and indigenous community crisis responders with the tools, training, connections, and funding they need to provide care.”

“Brandon Anderson misused charitable donations to fund lavish vacations and shopping sprees, and the Raheem AI board of directors let him get away with it,” said Schwalb in a statement. “Not only did their financial abuses violate fundamental principles of nonprofit governance, but Anderson and Raheem AI failed to pay their employee the wages they had earned.”

Schwalb’s statement provided spelled out the nature of Anderson’s alleged self-indulgent spending:

Since 2021, Anderson repeatedly used Raheem AI’s funds for personal use: spending over $40,000 on a luxury vacation rental service that allows members to stay in high-end mansions and penthouse apartments, $10,000 on hotels and Airbnb’s for personal travel – including to a Cancun resort, $10,000 on designer clothing brands, and $5,000 on emergency veterinary services. None of these expenses furthered Raheem AI’s stated nonprofit purpose.

Anderson’s alleged failure to pay an employee apparently lit the fuse that led to Tuesday’s move by the DC attorney general. The employee, Jasmine Banks, told the New York Times she contacted Schwalb’s office after her salary screeched to a halt. She says she was put on leave after she found credit card records of Anderson’s wild spending and raised her concerns. One of the firm’s board members told the Times that mansion rentals were associated with business travel. 

Raheem AI initially worked to create an app to facilitate police misconduct complaints. The vision evolved to creating a police alternative, one that would let people dealing with nonviolent situations contact a network of aid workers. The group racked up more than $4.3 million in donations from leftist organizations, with much of that money pouring in after police killed George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020.  

Before his fall, Anderson’s press coverage frequently included his claim that his work was inspired by the death of his gay “life partner” Raheem, whom he said was shot to death by police during a traffic stop in Oklahoma City. Now, it appears Anderson may not only guilty of financial misconduct, but also of concocting that whole story. Per the Times:  

As the group foundered, former employees discovered something else that was troubling: They could not find proof that Raheem ever existed. Mr. Anderson did not previously respond to questions about the man whose purported life and death inspired the nonprofit. 

Schwalb said there were no checks and balances at Raheem AI, as the entity hasn’t had a treasurer since 2020, leaving Anderson with full control over the assets. His suit seeks a court order to dissolve the nonprofit, recover misused money, and bar Anderson from serving in the leadership of any other DC nonprofits. 

“My office will not allow people to masquerade behind noble causes while violating the law, cheating taxpayers, or stealing from their workers,” said Schwalb. 

Jasmine Banks, a former staffer, says she is owed tens of thousands in unpaid wages since April, when she flagged Anderson’s actions to the board. She also alleges she was forced to sign an illegal noncompete clause.

“It hurts my heart to say it, but I think it was a con from the beginning,” she said of the organization. 

To rattle off just two previous episodes, we’ve seen an Atlanta Black Lives Matter founder arrested for using $200,000 in BLM donations on food, dining, entertainment, clothing, furniture, a home security system, tailored suits and accessories, and the Stacey Abrams-founded voting group the New Georgia Project accused of financial mismanagement and misuse of donated funds. 

We’re guessing there’s more where all these came from. 

Authored by Susan Crabtree via RealClearPolitics,

While most political strategists and campaign operatives are finally enjoying a post-election repose, making their favorite Thanksgiving fixings and preparing to deck the halls, California’s election officials and party leaders are still on the job.

Once again this year, California is the last state to finish its vote-counting, thanks to a set of vote-by-mail election laws the Democratic Party’s supermajority in the state legislature passed beginning last decade – purportedly to encourage more voter participation.

But making it easier to vote has come with a cost: The state is now a national punchline for election inefficiency, and critics assail it as rife for fraud. As of Tuesday night, two fiercely contested congressional races are hanging in the balance, and three state Assembly races remain too close to call.

“We’re still working,” lamented Jessica Millan Patterson, who chairs the California Republican Party. “Not just as Republicans, but as Californians, it’s embarrassing that we’re the last state in the nation. We’re the home of Silicon Valley, and we can do better. Florida has their elections tabulated in three hours.”

Yet three weeks after the election, there are still 109,485 votes to count across 58 counties, according to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber. And even when all the votes are counted, they won’t be certified until mid-December.

The main reason behind the delays? The state sends a ballot to every registered voter and counts all that are turned in within a week after polls close on Election Day – even if the ballots don’t carry a postmark. All that’s required is that a voter “has dated the vote-by-mail ballot identification envelope or the envelope otherwise indicates that the ballot was executed on or before Election Day,” according to California regulations.

County election officials must complete final counts of all 15.3 million votes cast by Dec. 5, and Weber has until Dec. 13 to certify the results. The vast majority of California voters use vote-by-mail, which slows down the vote-counting process.

“We have to open envelopes, we have to verify the signature, and all of those things before we can actually accept that ballot,” Weber said during a press conference the week after the election. “We have to make sure that that’s the person who actually sent the ballot in.”

But that’s not the whole story. The later deadlines have led to slower counts, as counties with strained election resources have no incentive to pay workers overtime to count votes around the clock.

And each year, the state legislature passes more laws lengthening the process. Under state law, counties must notify voters if their ballot isn’t accepted because of a missing or questionable signature so they can “cure” their ballot by signing a form verifying its authenticity. This year, the California legislature extended the time voters must respond to the notice and return the signed form. They now have until Dec. 1.

Republicans, on a national basis, have ridiculed the process, arguing that the system is vulnerable to cheating. They also point to the state’s “ballot harvesting” law, which went into effect in 2016 and allows any individual to return stacks of ballots to an unattended drop box or county elections office. Before that law, only a member of the same household could return a voter’s ballot.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis used the late vote-counting last week to take a shot at California, continuing the heated rivalry between the two states – and between DeSantis and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“California is still ‘counting’ votes — and there are two congressional races where the leads enjoyed by GOP incumbents have been either eliminated or dramatically reduced long after Election Day,” DeSantis posted on X.com. “It is possible that Republicans lose one or both of these seats — making the House majority razor thin. California’s election system is a disgrace, and the state should follow Arizona’s lead, recognize the need for an overhaul, and enact transparent reforms.”

But any efforts to speed up the process are unlikely as long as Democrats maintain a supermajority in both state legislature chambers. The U.S. Constitution gives states the power to set up and run elections as they see fit, frustrating Republican officials who have to play by the Democratic-set rules even if they strongly disagree with them.

Earlier this year, voters in Huntington Beach, a conservative-leaning city in Orange County, approved a law requiring voter identification in city elections starting in 2026. California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democrats in the legislature reacted to it by passing a law prohibiting local governments from adopting voter ID laws. California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Weber also sued the city, arguing that Huntington Beach’s requirement unlawfully conflicts with state law and impedes citizens’ “right to freely cast” their votes without imposing what he called a “hardship” burden on low-income voters, minorities, young and elderly voters, and people with disabilities.

On Nov. 16, an Orange County judge rejected the attorney general’s lawsuit, and the ruling could help clear the way for Huntington Beach and other cities across the state to implement ID requirements for voting. Bonta vowed to appeal the decision, arguing that it didn’t address “the merits of the case.”

“We disagree with the court’s decision that it is too early to bring our lawsuit and remain confident in the strength of our case,” Bonta said.

Still, the court ruling is encouraging Republicans in conservative strongholds where votes have little trust in the current election system.

“I would be a lot more confident in the process if we actually had voter ID,” Sen. Brian Dahle, who represents a largely rural district just south of Oregon, told RealClearPolitics. “You can’t buy a pack of cigarettes in the state without having an ID. It’s ludicrous to think we’re going to let people vote without one. There’s just a lot of opportunity for people to take advantage of the system.”

For now, California Republican officials say they have little choice but to play by the Democrats’ rules, trying to use them to their advantage when possible. During Millan Patterson’s tenure, the state party developed a far more robust ground game, developing a ballot harvesting operation, scrutinizing vote-counting, and curing ballots after Election Day.

Over the last three election cycles, the GOP efforts to scrutinize vote-counting and cure ballots paid off, but its effectiveness this year is still up in the air.

In 2020, Millan Patterson said the party had poll watchers to monitor 60% of all ballots. That year, Rep. Mike Garcia, a Republican locked in a tight race for a seat previously held by a Democrat, beat his challenger, Christy Smith, by 333 votes. But this year Garcia lost 51%-49% to George Whitesides, with 95% of the votes counted.

In 2022, the state party had volunteers and lawyers scrutinizing 93% of all vote-counting. That year, Republican John Duarte won against Assemblyman Adam Grey by 560 votes. In a rematch this year, Gray leads Duarte by 182 votes, with 95% counted, as of Tuesday night. In the other closely contested race in Orange County, Democrat Derek Tran leads GOP Rep. Michelle Steel by 613 votes, as of Tuesday night.

Also, in 2022, Greg Wallis, a GOP candidate, was locked in one of the closest Assembly races in history. After nearly all votes were counted, Republican officials worked to cure an undisclosed number of ballots, and Wallis won by 87 votes.

“In those types of incredibly close races, you have a lot of scrutiny over those and protesting ballots,” said Dahle, who is term-limited out of his seat. His wife, Megan, ran a successful race to replace him, winning 76% of the vote.

Still, there’s little doubt that the Golden State shifted decidedly toward Republicans this year. Millan Patterson credited Trump with moving nearly every county across California to the right, with several counties flipping from voting for Joe Biden in 2020 to voting for Trump in 2024. Every county also voted to approve Proposition 36, a tough-on-crime measure aimed at strengthening sentencing after a decade of lenient prosecutions across the state.

The California Republican Party coordinated with the Republican National Committee and county committees to deploy what she called “the largest election integrity infrastructure” the party has had. Republicans enlisted thousands of trained volunteers and more attorneys to help monitor vote-counting and cure ballots in the most targeted districts. In total, this team helped cure roughly 3,500 ballots after Election Day, with most taking place in the two most highly contested elections, the Duarte and Steel races.

“We can’t change the rules until we get more Republicans elected,” she said. “While it’s frustrating, we’re going to continue to do the work necessary to cure every legal ballot and make sure that they are counted so that we can have confidence in these elections.”

First elected in 2019, Millan Patterson has worked to help Republicans develop their own ballot harvesting ground game, coordinating with churches and recruiting thousands of volunteers to hold barbecues and other events where ballots are collected en masse and later dropped off at county election offices. Before Election Day, Patterson said the GOP collected 33,000 ballots through the effort. It’s hard to compare that with the Democrats’ efforts because they are more tight-lipped about their ballot-harvesting results.

During Millan Patterson’s tenure, the party has added at least 775,000 new Republicans to the voter rolls, gaining in every county and flipping two targeted districts red, after losing voter registrations over several years prior. Ric Grenell, Trump’s former U.S. ambassador to Germany who is under consideration to serve as his envoy on Ukraine, led a significant registration drive through his “Fix California” group over the last few years.

Susan Crabtree is RealClearPolitics’ national political correspondent.

The Washington Post in a fresh report have revealed more details and rationale behind the decision-making of the lame-duck Biden administration, which this month has chosen to escalate with Russia in several ways.

“President Joe Biden’s recent decisions to allow Ukraine to launch missiles deeper into Russia and to provide Kyiv with controversial antipersonnel land mines were driven by a stark new reality: Russia’s importing of North Korean troops, Ukrainian battlefield losses and the election of Donald Trump have thrust Ukraine into perhaps its weakest position in nearly three years,” the publication writes.

But missed is the fact that Ukrainian forces have been suffering steady losses on the front lines in Donetsk, have long lacked for manpower, and has also refused Western calls to lower the conscription age below the current age of 25.

WaPo almost seems upset by the fact that Ukraine will be pushed to the negotiating table “within months”…

“Many U.S. officials now concede that within a few months, Ukraine could be pushed into negotiations with Russia to end the war and that it could be forced to give up territory,” the report continues. “Biden’s reversal of his previous policies on mines and missiles was intended in part to give Ukraine the strongest possible hand as it enters those potential talks.”

The Kremlin is likely to demand nothing less that full recognition of Crimea as well as the four annexed oblasts as Russian territory, and that Ukraine forever gives up on aspirations to join the NATO alliance.

Perhaps the most absurd lines from the Washington Post report come in the following:

In all, the current dynamics suggest that one of Biden’s biggest foreign policy accomplishments is increasingly under threat. Biden declared in 2022 that Putin “cannot remain in power,” but it now appears likely that Putin’s gamble that he could outlast Western support for Ukraine could come to fruition, as he will soon face a U.S. president far more sympathetic to his position.

The reality is that Putin was never going anywhere, and Washington has risked nuclear and global war in seeking to make it happen. But when this fantasy comes to an end, the mainstream media is ready to blame Trump, who is supposedly “sympathetic” to Putin.

Meanwhile Trump has former general Keith Kellogg as his Ukraine-Russia envoy…

Trump names former general Keith Kellogg as Ukraine-Russia envoy. Kellogg has previously mooted halting Ukraine aid if Kyiv doesn’t take part in peace talks, and offering to put off NATO membership if Putin gives security guarantees pic.twitter.com/gIcGFHXbsz

— Danny Kemp (@dannyctkemp) November 27, 2024

And yet recent polls show that the majority of the American public backs immediate peace negotiations. For example CBS News/YouGov poll taken November 19-22 has revealed that most Americans are in favor ending US military aid to Ukraine at 51%.

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

The FBI announced on Nov. 26 that one of the bureau’s “most wanted terrorists” was arrested by officials in Wales for alleged bombings in San Francisco in 2003.

Daniel Andreas San Diego, considered one of the FBI’s most wanted fugitives as well, was arrested on Nov. 25 in a rural area in northern Wales, according to the UK’s National Crime Agency. He was ordered held in custody after appearing on Nov. 26 in Westminster Magistrates’ Court and faces extradition.

San Diego, 46, is charged in the United States with planting two bombs that exploded about an hour apart in the early morning of Aug. 28, 2003, on the campus of a biotechnology company in Emeryville, California. He’s also accused of setting off another bomb with nails strapped to it at a nutritional products company in Pleasanton, California, a month later.

“Daniel San Diego’s arrest after more than 20 years as a fugitive for two bombings in the San Francisco area shows that no matter how long it takes, the FBI will find you and hold you accountable,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement.

“There’s a right way and a wrong way to express your views in our country, and turning to violence and destruction of property is not the right way.”

In 2009, San Diego, of Berkeley, California, became the first person suspected of domestic terrorism to be added to the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist List. A reward of $250,000 was offered for information leading to his arrest.

The bulletin stated that San Diego “has ties to animal rights extremist groups” and is “known to follow a vegan diet.” It added that he previously worked as a Linux operating system networking specialist.

San Diego grew up in an upper-middle-class suburb of Marin County, north of San Francisco. His father was the city manager of nearby Belvedere, a wealthy enclave. The FBI has also said San Diego worked as a computer network specialist, was a skilled sailor, and was known to carry a handgun.

An archived FBI page, announcing that San Diego was added to the domestic terrorism list, said he was involved in a group called Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty and was “wanted for his alleged involvement in bombing two biotech facilities that did business with Huntingdon Life Sciences, a company that conducts animal experimentation for the medical and pharmaceutical industries.”

“Animal rights and environmental extremism pose a significant domestic terror threat,” the notice said at the time, adding that such attacks were responsible for 1,800 criminal acts and tens of millions of dollars in damages.

A group called Revolutionary Cells-Animal Liberation Brigade claimed responsibility for the bombings, citing the companies’ ties to Huntingdon Life Sciences. Huntingdon was a target of animal rights extremists because of its work with experimental drugs and chemicals on animals while under contract for pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and other companies.

Earlier this year, House Republicans, including Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.), the incoming Trump administration national security adviser, announced that they would investigate the “potential for eco-terrorist attacks” inside the United States, namely against energy infrastructure.

Their probe was launched because of a “spike in calls for violence by radical eco-terrorists on U.S. college campuses and across the globe,” the lawmakers said, requesting a briefing from Wray in April. It’s not clear if Wray eventually provided the House lawmakers with the briefing they sought.

Fiscally irresponsible policies pushed by far-left Democratic lawmakers have put Maryland, a deep-blue progressive state, into a projected death spiral, with some warning that the state could soon face its worst fiscal crisis in two decades. 

“The overarching takeaway from today’s meeting is that there’s an enormous gap between the ongoing spending commitments the state has made and ongoing revenues,” David Romans, a Department of Legislative Services budget analyst, said in a presentation for lawmakers, including members of the Joint Spending Affordability Committee, earlier this month. 

Romans warned the state will face “a significant challenge” in paying for those commitments. 

“By fiscal 2030 — the final year of our forecast — we are showing the state will only have enough revenue to cover 84% of the expenses we’re projecting the state to incur,” Romans said, adding, “That is the largest gap that we have seen in the last 20 years. It is more significant than the Great Recession.”

In 2008-09, Maryland, the state that borders Washington, DC, to the north and is known for the HBO hit series The Wire, was battered by a deep recession. At the time, budget projections had the state covering between 89% and 87% of its ongoing spending. Now, that figure is projected to be around 84% by the end of the decade. 

The local media outlet Maryland Matters was the first to report on the looming budget crisis, warning that it could plunge the state into an economic disaster if the sinking ship is not righted immediately.

Stagnant revenues and ambitious spending could leave the state able to pay just 84% of its bills in five years, when the deficit could be in the billions, analysts say.https://t.co/tEKl8TuxZY

— Maryland Matters (@marylandmatters) November 13, 2024

Here’s more from Maryland Matters:

Maryland faces more than $1 billion in combined structural and cash deficits in the current year. That gap more than doubles to $2.7 billion in fiscal 2026 and 2027.

By fiscal 2028, the state will exhaust the money set aside to cover the costs of education reforms, and will require money from the general fund. The structural deficit grows to nearly $4.7 billion in 2028, then $5.2 billion a year later, and again to $5.9 billion in fiscal 2030.

Senate Minority Leader Stephen S. Hershey (R-Upper Shore) called the outlook “pretty dismal.”

“A $2.7 billion deficit is not something that, unfortunately, … you can just make up with cuts,” Hershey said. “I hope that you can, but that’s a pretty big gap. It makes it very concerning that the governor and General Assembly are going to have to raise taxes. I’m hoping that’s not going to be the case, but I’m not sure how they can close that gap.”

Tuesday’s briefing was a stark reminder of budget pressures facing Gov. Wes Moore and a legislature controlled by Democrats.

An impasse between the House and Senate earlier this year led to a budget compromise that failed to fully address concerns. House leaders wanted a $1.3 billion tax and gaming proposal, while Senate leaders opposed broad-based taxes in favor of targeted increases. The result was a projected $1 billion structural deficit — the difference between expected spending and revenues — for fiscal 2026.

By July, those budget concerns were growing.

Moore proposed $150 million in budget adjustments this summer that were billed as cuts, but in reality reduced spending in several state agencies that was then shifted to cover costs of growing Medicaid enrollment and the state’s child care subsidy program.

Multiple legislative sources said in July that Medicare spending alone could add $800 million to the projected deficits.

Moore and Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore) said this summer that they had a “high bar” for any tax increase. Moore also warned county officials in August of the likelihood of tough budget decisions.

It comes as recent polling shows Marylanders are still feeling pinched economically. The issue was top of mind for many voters in Maryland and nationally during last week’s election.

A spokesman for Ferguson said the Senate leader would have a comment on the fiscal briefing soon.

A stagnant economy

Over the next five years, ongoing expenses in the state budget are projected to grow at 6% annually, while revenues are projected to grow at around half that amount, legislative analysts said Tuesday.

Maryland’s economy remains stagnant: The Board of Revenue Estimates said in September, in a first look at expected revenues for fiscal 2026, that taxes and other funds flowing to the state would grow by 0.9% over the current fiscal year.

“We have not seen a lot of employment growth,” Romans told lawmakers. “We do have very low unemployment, but we’re just not seeing much employment growth, and that’s suppressing our revenues a little bit.”

Coming state budgets will have to absorb billions in additional costs for education reforms in the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future. The state also faces higher-than-expected costs for Medicaid, driven by inflation and increased enrollment, and greater demand for the state’s child care subsidy program.

“So, all those additional spending pressures are leading to spending growing much faster than the revenues,” Romans said.

“Significant long-term solutions” needed

Moore and lawmakers could draw down on the state’s Rainy Day Fund. At $2.5 billion, the cash in the account is twice the statutory requirement of 5% of annual revenues. Taking half the fund would cover the gap projected for the current year and a portion of fiscal 2026.

The state could also suspend a requirement to set aside hundreds of millions to hedge against revenue volatility, and it could shift $250 million in cash to the deficit and opt to borrow money to pay for the already approved capital projects.

“If you did those three things, you can get through fiscal ’25 without any really difficult decisions, and you solve roughly half the fiscal ’26 problem,” Romans said.

Those moves are not without risk, however.

First, Romans said Moore and lawmakers still face “an enormous problem in ’26 and it grows dramatically by (fiscal) ’28.” That problem likely will require “significant long-term solutions.”

Those include cuts to spending in,creased taxes, or both.

“You’re not going to be able to just use the cash resources the state has to manage our way out of the problem,” Romans said.

“This budget problem is not being driven by a recession,” he said. “It’s being driven by a somewhat stagnant economy and by our spending ambitions.

Advocates renew push for $1.6 billion tax plan

The cash options are a one-time fix.

“So, if you use the Rainy Day Fund and you get rid of the revenue volatility, you’re eliminating two of the things that you sort of can rely on during recession to help mitigate the impacts of a recession,” Romans warned.

“I would be cautious in using these strategies without having a longer-term plan to solve the budget problem, because if we were to fall into a recession in the next few years, you would have very few options left to deal with it, other than making substantial cuts.” he said.

Advocates for a broad-based tax package proposed earlier this year seized on the briefing to renew calls for their plan.

“Now is the time to fix our tax system and ensure we have the revenue we need to fund the education, health, and public safety programs that make our communities stronger,” Fair Share Maryland, a coalition of 40 organizations, said in a statement Tuesday. “The Fair Share Maryland plan reforms the state’s upside-down tax system that currently gives unfair tax breaks to large corporations and the ultra-rich.”

Advocates said the plan, as introduced in January, cobbled together a number of proposals from earlier, failed legislation. The largest revenue source — $576 million a year — would come from closing what advocates called “corporate tax loopholes.” That includes counting corporations and their subsidiaries as one entity for tax purposes, preventing corporations from moving profits from one state to another state or country with a lower tax rate.

“Maryland leaves hundreds of millions of dollars on the table each year it fails to close corporate tax loopholes,” the group said. “Our state policies also allow the wealthiest 1% of households in Maryland to pay a smaller share of their income in taxes than anyone else. This puts the burden for public services on working families and our small businesses.”

The bill also included an increase in taxes for residents earning $1 million or more annually, as well as a 1% surcharge on capital gains.

“We can build a durable and resilient economy by righting our state’s tax code,” the group said. “Maryland can also raise $1.6 billion in revenue each year to support good schools, health care, transportation, and the state workforce needed to deliver high-quality services. Doing so will also cut taxes for more than 1 million Marylanders with a family income of $65,000 or less.”

But the deficits projected 10 months ago were smaller. It is unclear how much the Fair Share plan would cut into the current projections.

Possible Trump effect looms

None of the projections outlined Tuesday included potential changes as the result of the 2024 presidential election.

President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to purge federal employees and move federal agencies outside the Washington, D.C.,  region. Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich said last week that he ordered a review of potential impacts to the county budget, but predicted there would also be consequences for the state.

There are also concerns about funding for the replacement of the Francis Scott Key Bridge and the relocation of the FBI headquarters to Prince George’s County.

One proposed project important to Moore – the Red Line rail system — was not mentioned. But Hershey said he does not believe the Trump administration will ever fund the east-west transit line.

“I think honestly, with the Trump administration coming in, essentially, for all intent purposes, the Red Line is dead,” Hershey said. “We’re not going to see federal funding for that.”

Maryland receives about $19 billion annually in federal aid. That’s in addition to the 256,000 residents – about 8% of all state taxpayers — who received some form of federal wages or pension payments in 2021, according to the Comptroller’s Office.

The economy could also take a hit if Trump follows through with other proposals, including mass deportations and tariffs that analysts worry could trigger inflation and recession.

“We don’t have any real way to model what they might propose to do, and a lot of those sort of things will require congressional action, so we’ll certainly be monitoring that,” Romans said. “There’s certainly a significant risk to our economy.”

Sending Maryland into a fiscal crisis is not a great look for Democrats and Governor Wes Moore. Moore has been pitched as a possible candidate for the presidential run in 2028. It’s going to be a tough campaign for Moore – considering he can’t even balance the state’s budget as far-left politicians in the state spend taxpayer funds on illegal aliens and wokeism. 

BREAKING: Frederick, Maryland Mayor Michael O’Connor announced he’s creating a fund using tax dollars to help illegals pay for legal fees to fight deportations once Trump takes office pic.twitter.com/XN5hFZ0NMZ

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) November 26, 2024

Marylanders should recognize that the state’s potential fiscal collapse could mirror that of Illinois. The common denominator in both states is that the leadership is mostly of radical left-wing policymakers, not based in reality.

Authored by Christopher Roach via American Greatness,

Escalating brinkmanship might be justified if victory were in sight or if any of this contributed to American security.  But none of these things are true…

We are probably closer to a nuclear war than any previous point in my lifetime.

As a Generation X kid who grew up during the Cold War, fear of nuclear war is still a deeply ingrained instinct. We read Alas Babylon in school and saw The Day After to give us a sense of what a nuclear apocalypse might be like. Everyone understood it was the summum malum, the end of civilization as we know it.

The fear of nuclear war did not stop all conflict during the Cold War, but it did ensure that conflicts were limited. During that tense time, there were no world wars or sustained fighting between the nuclear powers themselves. Instead, wars took place among proxies far from the territory of the superpowers, such as the wars in Vietnam and Afghanistan.

A few decades after the end of the Cold War—during which no one was particularly worried about a nuclear war—a new conflict with Russia has arisen due to major disagreements about the nature of the international order and our respective places within it. What began in 2014 as a limited confrontation between Russia and a western-backed Ukraine has evolved into an enormous conventional war.

After the West increased its support to Ukraine following Russia’s 2022 invasion, there was some recognition among western leaders about the dangers of provocation. Even so, such risk has increased in an incremental fashion. At first, western leaders thought it was too much to provide tanks, but soon the West relented, and the Ukrainians received M1 Abrams and Leopard II tanks.

Then, there was a lot of hemming and hawing about providing F-16 fighter jets. This surprised me, as they are not materially better than Ukraine’s MiG-29s, but, apparently, one of the Russian objections was that F-16s can carry nuclear armaments and risk confusion about western intentions. But now Ukraine has these as well.

We have since crossed the last phase line. Having provided Ukraine the Storm Shadow and ATACMS medium-range missiles, we have now authorized their use against Russian territory, in spite of increasingly desperate Russian warnings. After this authorization, Ukraine promptly fired them into Russian territory. Russia claims that these weapons can only be targeted with direct western involvement and that the West is practically and morally responsible for their use.

While Russia has conveyed many warnings, so far it has avoided directly targeting western countries and personnel. This week something different happened. First, after the West’s official authorization to use smart missiles against Russian territory, Russia expanded its nuclear doctrine to authorize the use of nuclear weapons against Ukraine. Then, in response to a Ukrainian attack using these sophisticated weapons, Russia launched several intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) with multiple independent reentry vehicles (MIRVs) against the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.

This is extremely serious. These launches and missile trajectories can be detected from space through our nuclear warning satellites. While Russia made normal deconfliction communications in advance of the missile launch, it is not clear if anyone on our side knew for certain whether or not the Russian MIRVs had nuclear warheads.

Nuclear warheads are typically the only thing delivered through MIRVs. Perhaps as the hypersonic weapons approached the target, the crews at NORAD were on the edge of their seats with anticipation, like a scene from the movie War Games. Dramatic footage of their impact showed sophisticated, fast-moving warheads that cannot easily be intercepted.

Regardless of anyone’s feelings about the war, Ukraine is not winning, and it will not recover its lost territories. It is not a question of its people’s commitment or the West’s. We have given them everything we could in terms of money and matériel, and they have fought with bravery and tenacity.

But this is a war of attrition, and reality has a vote. Ukraine has far fewer people than Russia, is losing territory at an accelerating pace, has likely lost several hundred thousand men killed, and many of the remaining men are avoiding service, remaining overseas, and building lives elsewhere.

When the conflict devolved into a war of attrition in late 2022, it was pretty clear that there was no realistic prospect for a Ukrainian victory. This was even more clear after the failure of the 2023 Ukrainian summer offensive.

The Kursk incursion earlier this year was supposed to boost Ukrainian spirits and change the strategic landscape. But the initial success of that campaign has proven to be entirely ephemeral, and this risky move accelerated the collapse of the Ukrainian front. It seems western leaders are only coming around to this realization now.

While Joe Biden and Kamala Harris promised to prosecute the war to the maximum extent, Trump made it clear in his presidential campaign that he would force through a peace deal of some kind. This is what the American people chose.

With only a couple of months left in office, Biden could have tried to stabilize things, avoid provocations, and begin negotiations. Such a course would take into account the decision of the American people to reject his Ukraine policy. But, instead, he—or more likely the interventionists of the Deep State like Anthony Blinken, Jake Sullivan, and Victoria Nuland—has taken new and provocative steps in authorizing the use of ATACMs against Ukraine and possibly assisting in their targeting, as Russia claims.

These weapons will not win the war. Ukraine has had access to HIMARS rockets and Storm Shadow long-range missiles for over a year now. While these have hit targets inside Ukraine’s disputed territory and had some effect, Russia has developed various countermeasures, and these weapons have not been enough to turn the tide.

While western rhetoric condemns Putin as an irrational madman, our actions suggest that our leaders believe he is restrained and will remain so. In other words, in spite of many warnings, Biden’s team has proceeded as if Russia is bluffing and will bluff forever. But what if we are wrong?

The Russian use of an ICBM is the first combat usage of such weapons in history. This is a very clear warning that Russia has nearly run out of patience with the West’s practice of incrementally increasing its assistance to Ukraine. Such weapons can reach European capitals in minutes, whether armed with conventional or nuclear payloads.

For NATO and the West, escalating brinkmanship might be justified if victory were in sight, some high principle like anti-communism were involved, or if any of this contributed to American security. But none of these things are true. We are risking the annihilation of the world over a border dispute that has nothing to do with our country or its security. The American people have rejected our continued involvement in this tragic war, but there are unfortunately many opportunities for escalation and miscalculation in the weeks ahead.

The only thing standing between the world and a nuclear war is the rational restraint of Vladimir Putin and any hope he harbors of a deal under President Trump. Let us hope Russia’s leaders remain more rational and restrained than our own in the weeks ahead.

Did Trump solve the border crisis two months before even being sworn in as the 47th president?

Two days after surprising markets – and sending the peso plummeting – by announcing he would enact 25% import duties on Mexican goods if the country doesn’t stop the flow of drugs and migrants across the border.

tariffs on Mexican goods in response to the flood of drugs across the porous southern border, best known for allowing millions of illegal immigrants to enter the US in the past four ears, Trump’s unexpected gambit may have already paid off.

In a post on Truth Social network, Trump announced that after a “wonderful” conversation with Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum, she “agreed to stop Migration through Mexico, and into the United States, effectively closing our Southern Border.”

He added that the two also talked about “what can be done to stop the massive drug inflow into the United States” concluding that it was a “very productive” conversation which of course, it would be, if indeed Trump – who again is still two months away from inauguration – managed to solve the US border crisis just 48 hours after using targeted tariffs as a bargaining chip.

While it remains to be confirmed on the Mexican side if Trump’s recollection of the conversation is accurate, Trump’s announcement comes just hours after the legacy media reported that Mexico would take on a more aggressive posture, with the AP reporting that Sheinbaum had suggested that “Mexico could retaliate with tariffs of its own” and that while she was willing to engage in talks on the issues, drugs were a U.S. problem.

“One tariff would be followed by another in response, and so on until we put at risk common businesses,” Sheinbaum said, referring to U.S. automakers that have plants on both sides of the border.

She said Tuesday that Mexico had done a lot to stem the flow of migrants, noting “caravans of migrants no longer reach the border.” However, Mexico’s efforts to fight drugs like the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl – which is manufactured by Mexican cartels using chemicals imported from China – have weakened in the last year.

Amusingly, Sheinbaum also said Mexico suffered from an influx of weapons smuggled in from the United States, and said the flow of drugs “is a problem of public health and consumption in your country’s society” which judging by the libs ongoing reaction to Trump’s victory is pretty much spot on.

As noted, there is still no official confirmation or full context of the agreement from President Sheinbaum’s side, but the market certainly reacted with the peso surging, and almost wiping out all losses from the past 48 hours after Trump’s first unveiled his 25% tariff threat.

If confirmed, this would be the second time Trump has managed to convince Mexico to suspend migrants from crossing its territory to enter the US. Back in 2018, former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador – a charismatic, old-school politician – developed a chummy relationship with Trump. The two were eventually able to strike a bargain in which Mexico helped keep migrants away from the border – and received other countries’ deported migrants – and Trump backed down on similar threats.

While Sheinbaum, who took office Oct. 1, has been seen as a stern leftist ideologue trained in radical student protest movements, and appeared less willing to pacify or mollify Trump, it seems she too has capitulated just 48 hours after Trump unveiled what was coming.

A new study has revealed where Americans are most likely to buy a home heading into the end of 2024. Highland Cabinetry conducted a comprehensive analysis of all 50 U.S. states to determine where homebuying is most preferred.

The study utilized search data from Google’s Keyword Explorer Tool to gauge interest and incorporated additional factors such as home sale prices, mortgage rates, average rent, and home value changes over the past year. Data was sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau, Business Insider, Zillow, and others.

A preference score was then assigned to each state, combining these metrics to create a comparative ranking.

California emerges as the most sought-after state for homebuyers, boasting a preference score of 75.8. Despite its high average home sale price of $782,695, the Golden State saw the largest home value decrease at 2.8% over the past year. Coupled with over 5.6 million searches for terms like “buy a house,” this drop signals growing interest in the state as a potential investment opportunity. However, California remains the priciest state to rent, with average monthly rent at $1,870, presenting challenges for renters but opportunities for landlords.

Texas and Ohio stand out for their affordability. Texas, with a preference score of 55.8, recorded nearly 4.8 million home-buying searches and offers one of the lowest average home sale prices at $303,352. Monthly rent in Texas is relatively low at $1,290, making it an attractive choice for both buyers and renters.

Ohio, ranked eighth with a score of 51.1, is the cheapest state to rent, with an average monthly rent of $949. It also boasts the lowest home sale price among the top states at $221,816, combined with a 3.5% rise in home values, signaling strong investment potential.

Florida, New York, and New Jersey round out the top states for homebuying interest. Florida’s reasonable home prices, averaging $396,318, and moderate rent costs of $1,525 earned it a score of 62.2, while New York secured second place despite its high mortgage rates and modest home value growth, according to Highland Cabinetry.

New Jersey, with a significant 5.2% increase in home values and one of the lowest mortgage rates at 4.84%, remains a strong competitor, though its average home sale price of $508,430 places it in the mid-range.

While California leads in overall interest, states like Texas and Ohio highlight the appeal of affordability. The findings suggest that prospective buyers balance various factors, including potential long-term value, cost of living, and market trends.

A Highland Cabinetry spokesperson emphasized the importance of looking beyond upfront costs: “If you’re considering purchasing a home, look beyond just the price tag. While states with declining home values, like California, may seem attractive, remember to weigh other factors such as mortgage rates, average rent, and potential long-term value growth.”

They concluded: “A state with a modest initial investment can become a hidden gem if its home value trends upward, offering a better return in the long run. Diversifying your search can help you spot opportunities that align with your financial goals and lifestyle needs.”

Submitted by Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Kimberly Process Chair 2024

The global diamond industry once again finds itself at a crossroads, and while the need to curb conflict diamonds and ensure ethical sourcing remains paramount, the European Union’s proposal for a single diamond control node in Antwerp raises serious concerns about sovereignty and efficiency, while undermining the integrity of the Kimberley Process (KP).

In a statement issued by the Diplomatic Service of the European Union, my comments made during the KP Plenary meeting in my capacity as the KP Chair were described as “regrettable” and that the Kimberley Process had “failed, for a third year in a row, to address the implications of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine on the global rough diamond sector.”

As an organization, the KP serves a very specific function – to unite administrations, civil societies, and industry in reducing the flow of conflict diamonds. It has no mandate to endorse political sanctions against sovereign nations. As a process that has proven its purpose and function, particularly by identifying all diamonds at source, the EU should first ask themselves why now they wish to displace an operation they have trusted for a generation with a less effective proposal that is untried, untested, and unrequired. It should also question why its position has isolated itself within the global diamond community, which increasingly sees its proposal as a play for hegemony over the holistic needs of the industry.  

Contrary, the KP’s decentralized solution is overwhelmingly supported by industry members, KP observers, including the World Diamond Council, civil society, and numerous Belgian stakeholders, many of whom are afraid to speak out in fear of reprisal. As the Kimberley Process Chair, I have consistently voiced my concern about this centralized approach. Not only does it disrupt the established KP framework, a decentralized network of 59 nodes, (60 if you include recently onboarded Uzbekistan), that has functioned effectively for over two decades, but worse, undermines the trust and collaboration that has upheld the equitable participation and sovereignty of all member states.

Conversely, the single-node model imposes a Eurocentric lens on the global diamond trade by placing disproportionate burdens on African producers, requiring them to channel their diamonds through Antwerp for verification before accessing G7 markets. This not only adds logistical and financial costs but also undermines the ability of African nations to self-regulate and manage their own natural resources. In other words, the EU’s agenda can only be seen to be self-serving as a way of preserving its relevance in an industry that overwhelmingly rejects supervision and bureaucracy in favour of decentralised collaboration.

Frankly, it is disheartening to see that despite vocal opposition from African nations, including Botswana, Namibia, and Angola, and the concerns raised by the African Diamond Producers Association (ADPA), Europe remains deaf and committed to its single-node concept, setting a troubling precedent reminiscent of its imperial past. Even in terms of practical efficiency, this centralised approach creates a single point of failure, making the system vulnerable to corruption, bottlenecks, and inefficiencies; vulnerabilities for which Antwerp already has a demonstrable track record.

And what logic selects Antwerp? Not consensus. Not its track record.

Belgium, and specifically Antwerp, was long considered the heart of the global diamond trade. However, this glittering reputation is tarnished by a history of corruption, smuggling, and ethical breaches. The Monstrey Case exposed a network of 220 corrupt diamond dealers, of which 107 were charged for large-scale forgery, including fraudulent Kimberley Process certificates and money laundering. Other notable cases include Agim De Bruycker – the long-standing Antwerp Federal Police Commissioner and Head of the Diamond Squad, who was arrested twice and served a custodial sentence for similar charges.

If one were to choose some paradigm of efficiency, Antwerp is hardly a strong candidate, leading to the conclusion that the choice was made at a geopolitical level for the benefit of the few. This isn’t to say that any location is perfect. Any single location is, by its nature the wrong choice. The argument for a decentralized system based on transparency, versus blindly trusting the EU for certification, is just common sense. Even when taking a step back from the diamond industry specifically, the current global political climate, with its shift towards nationalism and self-determination, further underscores the need for a decentralized approach. As former European Central Bank President Mario Draghi aptly stated, the future of competitiveness lies in embracing decentralization and empowering individual nations.

Throughout its twenty-four-year history, the KP has proven its effectiveness in curbing conflict diamonds and promoting ethical sourcing, while its tried and tested processes have the capacity to adapt and improve, ensuring that all nations have the right to self-regulate their natural resources. Additionally, the UAE’s proof-of-concept KP certification platform, which was showcased at the KP Plenary in Dubai, is a testament to the potential for innovation within the existing framework. It demonstrates that technology can be leveraged to enhance transparency and traceability without compromising sovereignty or imposing undue financial and logistical burdens. In this, I look forward to working with the KP family to build a future where all stakeholders, particularly Africa’s producing nations, continue to have a voice and benefit equitably from their natural resources.