These Guys Are Sharks, They Are Going To Make A Fortune
A report from the Baltimore Sun. “Michael and Maud Ziegler might have thought twice about purchasing their condo in Ocean City if they’d known their fees would be projected to increase from $900 to $3,300 a quarter. The projected increase stems from a Maryland law passed in 2022, requiring condos, homeowners associations and cooperative housing corporations to perform reserve studies identifying how much money is needed for future repairs and maintenance. For many Maryland residents, it’s not just vacation properties affected by the higher fees. One condo owner in Roland Park, who requested not to be named due to concerns about divulging his personal information, had to take out a loan to cover a $12,000 ‘special assessment’ charge that his condo required him to pay within a month and a half. That was in addition to increased monthly fees rising from $830, when he bought the condo three years ago, to $1,350 now. ‘How feasible is it for someone to be legally on the hook to contribute that?’ the resident said. He said he plans to sell his condo after his daughter finishes high school.”
“One of the most ‘troubling’ aspects of Holmes’ bill is a provision allowing for a delay in repairs if residents are experiencing financial hardship, said Peter Miller, president of Miller Dodson Associates, a reserve study firm based in Annapolis who also served on a task force to develop national reserve study standards. ‘That’s exactly what got Florida into trouble,’ Miller said. ‘The Florida law allowed them to either partially fund or not fund the reserves based on a majority vote… We’re repeating the same stupid mistake by telling the board that, ‘Oh well, if you’re in too bad of shape, you don’t have to do it.’ Which means, in two years, you’re going to be in even worse shape.'”
Market Watch. “Dear Big Move, I’m 73, and I have two rental properties. Living in Florida, condo owners are facing very high cost of assessments and ever-increasing homeowners association fees. Those costs can’t possibly be passed on to the tenants, as they are impossibly high. My individual retirement account helps fill the gap, but at my age with more conservative investments, my portfolio is shrinking. So when should I sell? When is a good time to sell them? Small-time Landlord in Florida. Dear Landlord, You’re not the only one suffering from the rise in homeowner’s association fees. HOA dues rose a median of 15% year-over-year in Tampa, Orlando and Fort Lauderdale, compared with a median gain of 6% across the 43 metros, according to Redfin. ‘It’s common for HOA fees to increase over time as property prices increase, but that’s not what’s happening in Florida,’ the study found. ‘Condo prices are actually falling in many parts of the Sunshine State, in part because HOA fees have surged so much.'”
WINK News in Florida. “A long-awaited luxury riverside development in Fort Myers has faced several delays, leaving potential homeowners frustrated with the project. The empty lot on First Street was supposed to transform into a two-tower, 202-unit, 22-story condominium complex, but that has yet to happen. Both projects faced the threat of foreclosure earlier this week, after developer Bob MacFarlane was asked to pay $36.9 million in funding. When he failed to do so, the properties were placed on the auction block Thursday. In an interview with WINK News reporter Amy Galo, Fort Myers Mayor Kevin Anderson said he’s spoken with several out-of-state individuals who put down payments on units, expecting completion this year. ‘They’re very frustrated, very concerned,’ said Anderson. MacFarlane also assured those who made down payments that they have options. ‘Whoever continues with the site, they can either get their money back or they can stay on the site,’ said MacFarlane. ‘There have been a few people that were angry and upset.'”
From WEAR Pensacola. “More than three million Canadians came to Florida last year, according to data from Visit Florida. But new rules from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) could make it more difficult for those travelers. ‘The word amongst Canadians in the U.S. is shock,’ said Marc-Andre Seguin, vice president of the Canada-Florida Chamber of Commerce (Canada Chapter). ‘Canadians aren’t used to being received as invaders when living or spending time on American soil and enjoying time with their neighbors. They see themselves as investors and members of the community.’ Seguin calls the new rules disappointing. And he says some Canadians who own property in Florida feel the same. ‘A lot of Canadians that we’ve been in touch with over the last couple of days have considered simply selling their property and moving elsewhere to spend their winters just because they are concerned,’ said Seguin.”
From KOLD. “The U.S. is tightening immigration rules, affecting Canadian travelers. The new rule is drawing mixed reactions from the Yuma Canadian snowbird community. ‘Oh, I won’t be back next year, no,” said Bruce Henry, a Canadian citizen. Henry said the U.S. government’s recent actions have not felt very neighborly. ‘It’s just not what you do; it’s like burning your neighbor’s house down,’ said Henry. Nearly 1 million Canadians visit Arizona each year, contributing significantly to the state’s economy, but this could now be affected. ‘I’ve talked to folks who have tried to put their property on sale to make sure they don’t come back,’ said Norm Duquette, a Canadian snowbird.”
Fox 7 in Texas. “A so-called ‘ghost neighborhood’ has been demolished after the developer failed to finish construction. Neighbors say the vacant Southstone homes were attracting homeless people and it became potentially dangerous. Nearly 45 acres of rubble and ash were left in close to a dozen Southstone homes in South Austin. Neighbors say the new development turned ‘ghost town’ became a dump site and eye-sore when the developers failed to complete the project. ‘My neighbors have sent emails to city council members asking for some resolution. We knew it was a difficult situation, but it was impacting our property values and our quality of life because just the things that were happening over there,’ says neighbor Bryan Poff. ‘I understood what was happening to the developers when interest rates took off. It was too expensive for them to borrow money. Plus, any potential buyers that had went away. So, they were just kind of stuck. They couldn’t develop any further.'”
Washington Post on California. “There has been a frenetic rush to buy and sell scorched lots since wildfires leveled thousands of homes in Altadena and Pacific Palisades two months ago. As residents reckon with the reality that they may need to sell, many wonder what it may mean for their families — and the fate of their communities. ‘People are getting shamed for selling, but the bottom line is people need money and want to get the most for their property,’ Ramiro Rivas said. ‘Every little cent counts right now.’ In nine days, Rivas closed Altadena’s first post-fire residential land sale. And more hit the market every day. In Altadena, some lots seem to be selling for substantially less than they would have before the fires, said Mark Karlan, a real estate finance professor at UCLA. ‘Something is wrong with the Altadena prices, especially for how big those lots are,’ he said after reviewing listings. And with many owners in financial distress, that can lure predatory buyers, he added.”
“Retirees on a fixed income and residents with little or no insurance are more likely to sell out of desperation in an effort to recoup whatever money they can, said José Loya, an urban-planning professor at UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs. ‘They’re trying to sell their homes because they’re in a very vulnerable financial situation,’ Loya said.”
“When he heard the price, Steven Lamb sat up straight against the back of his mother’s antique blue couch. There’s no way he was going to sell his land, even if it was full of charred trees and burned orange metal, for that. A broker on the phone had just offered Lamb $462,000 in cash for his 8,900-square-foot plot. The lifelong Altadena resident and former developer was thinking about selling, but he estimated that the plot beneath the remains of his redwood craftsman should be worth at least $800,000. ‘I mean, that’s just insane,’ Lamb replied, indignant. He pressed on: ‘Don’t you know what empty lots were selling for before the fire?’ ‘Yeah,’ the broker replied. ‘I think you’re going to see a new standard of compensation.'”
“At 67, and now living with his sick, elderly mother, he and his wife have been debating whether a long and costly rebuild is worth it. A company called AIE Realty, short for Always in Escrow, told Lamb in a letter that it was a local real estate team ‘working with a serious buyer’ to pay cash for their lot — toxic debris and all. Curious, Lamb picked up the phone. But minutes into the call, he’d heard enough. ‘These guys are sharks,’ he concluded. ‘They are going to make a fortune.'”
From Global News. “The outlook for Canada’s housing market remains uncertain after the Bank of Canada cut its key interest rate on Wednesday amid what it calls ‘pervasive uncertainty’ around the trade war imposed by the U.S. Clay Jarvis, a mortgage expert at NerdWallet Canada, said while a March rate cut is typically good news for the spring housing market, it is hard for Canadian homebuyers to have confidence right now. ‘A March rate cut from the Bank of Canada would usually act as fuel for the spring housing market, but it’s hard to start a fire when the economy is soaked through with uncertainty,’ Jarvis said. ‘No one knows what’s going to happen with tariffs. They could wind up decimating several industries. It’s hard to sign up for a mortgage when you don’t know if you’ll have a job later this year.'”
“Penelope Graham, mortgage expert at Ratehub.ca, said, ‘Tariff uncertainty has thrown cold water on what otherwise would have been a robust early spring market; home buyers are hesitant to buy properties as a potential recession looms, while sellers pile inventory onto an already saturated market.'”
The Globe and Mail. “The Bank of Canada’s latest interest-rate cut will help homeowners who are due to renew their mortgages. But experts say they don’t expect cheaper loans to motivate more prospective homebuyers to wade into the market. ‘There is a lot of uncertainty. That has prompted households to take a wait-and-see approach,’ said Samantha Villiard, a regional vice-president with Re/Max Canada real estate brokerage. Her fellow regional vice-president Kingsley Ma said home sellers and buyers would rather put plans on hold until the economic uncertainty subsides. Mr. Ma said he did not think the bank’s 25-basis-point cut would persuade buyers to make a purchase. ‘If you lose your job, you won’t be able to pay your mortgage so it doesn’t matter if the interest rates are lower,’ he said.”
The Jerusalem Post. “Israel’s housing market is sliding into recession with Tel Aviv leading in sales of new apartments but also having the biggest supply of new homes, while Haifa leads in second-hand home sales, according to the latest Central Bureau of Statistics figures on housing deals in January 2025. Housing supply is again breaking records, even though in December 2024 there was a rush of buyers to purchase new apartments, ahead of the VAT hike in January 2025. In general, the supply of unsold new apartments reached about 78,000 new apartments in January, which is equivalent to 18 months of construction, continuing to break records, despite the difficult situation for real estate developers, who start new projects even before they manage to sell the apartments in their previous projects.”
“June 2024 appears to be the watershed month in the market, with the impact of real estate developers buy now pay later offers diminishing, and despite buyers rushing to buy new apartments in December 2024 to avoid the VAT increase, apartment purchases are in decline and the supply of apartments is rapidly increasing. Since June 2024, the data show that each month the number of new apartments sold decreased by about 3% from the previous month.”
The Vietnam Express. “Developers are struggling to sell villas and townhouses in southern Vietnam with only 1% of primary market supply being bought this year, mostly due to high prices. Of 5,000 units becoming available for sale in HCMC and its vicinity, only 75 were bought, according to a report by property consultancy DKRA Group. In the same period last year 16% of the supply had been sold, and the average absorption rate for the whole year was 21%, DKRA added. Vo Hong Thang, deputy CEO of DKRA Group, blamed this on ‘unappealing products’ and sky-high prices. ‘The current supply of housing with land consists mainly of older stock relisted for sale and unsold inventory from 2024.'”
“Cao Thi Thanh Huong, senior research manager at Savills HCMC, said newly launched villas and townhouses in the city averaged VND350 million per square meter, with 74% of supply priced above VND30 billion. With buyers wary of high-value assets and hesitant to use credit, expensive properties struggle to find buyers, especially with their limited diversity and a stagnant secondary market, she said. Most developers are avoiding outright price cuts and instead offering extended payment plans, she said. ‘However, these measures have yet to effectively boost liquidity as hoped.’ Research firms predict southern Vietnam will see 3,000-5,000 new units comprising land and housing this year.”
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At 67, and now living with his sick, elderly mother, he and his wife have been debating whether a long and costly rebuild is worth it. A company called AIE Realty, short for Always in Escrow, told Lamb in a letter that it was a local real estate team ‘working with a serious buyer’ to pay cash for their lot — toxic debris and all. Curious, Lamb picked up the phone. But minutes into the call, he’d heard enough. ‘These guys are sharks,’ he concluded. ‘They are going to make a fortune’
Yer doing the right thing Steve. Hold the line, don’t give it away!
Yeah, taking all the risk, sitting on it for 3 to 4 years to rebuild (minimum) if they are even allowed to, removing all the crap (which in a normal state is 10k, but probably 100k in cali) and then trying to sell the house. Seems pretty reasonable offer to me.
That’s the best offer he’s going to see. We’re going to be hearing from this guy again in 3 years “ohhhhhhhhhhhhh i’m a million dollars into this rebuild and i”ve got nothing cuz i didn’t buy insurance before the fire…………oh whoa is me”
and then trying to sell the *uninsurable* house
I’m still seeing insane closing prices, even in areas that burned in 2007.
For the skeptics, recently sold houses over $1.4M:
https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-search/Poway_CA/type-single-family-home/show-recently-sold/price-1400000-na?view=map
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_Fire#/media/File:Witch_Creek_Fire_map.jpg (zoom in on “Rancho Bernardo”)
RB is insane
“Bernardo” on the map is actually over Poway.
RB is insane
Because of Apple buying HP’s old campus.
‘Graham, mortgage expert at Ratehub.ca, said, ‘Tariff uncertainty has thrown cold water on what otherwise would have been a robust early spring market; home buyers are hesitant to buy properties as a potential recession looms, while sellers pile inventory onto an already saturated market’
Wa happened to my shortage Penny?
But…but…muh inventory shortage! Pent-up demand on the sidelines just waiting to rush in!
https://x.com/mikesimonsen/status/1899187438989562250
Good morning everyone!
Folks who have been using the JoshuaTree Extension may have noticed warnings about it in Chrome. I’ve updated things to (hopefully) make them happy. The Firefox version is updated as well:
* Chrome/Brave version
* Firefox version
If there’s anyone reading this blog who has no clue what I’m talking about, it’s a browser extension that makes it easier to read, follow, and post comments on Ben’s blog.
As always, I don’t charge for the extension so please toss some cash to our site’s host (Ben) in appreciation of his work to provide us this dark corner of the internet.
Thanks!
Appreciate the update!
hey, thanks, just updated FF and it’s already way easier to read.
Thank you, sir!
‘Developers are struggling to sell villas and townhouses in southern Vietnam with only 1% of primary market supply being bought this year, mostly due to high prices. Of 5,000 units becoming available for sale in HCMC and its vicinity, only 75 were bought’
‘Thang, deputy CEO of DKRA Group, blamed this on ‘unappealing products’ and sky-high prices. ‘The current supply of housing with land consists mainly of older stock relisted for sale and unsold inventory from 2024’
With thousands of overpriced airboxes coming, how many months of inventory is that Vo?
The Spectator – The climate has changed on Climate Change.
https://www.newgeography.com/files/The-Climate-has-changed-on-climate-change-Spectator.pdf
[A pdf file.]
“If everybody were able to work from home just one day a week, it would save around one percent of global oil consumption.”
The meaning is that a person should be able to stay home one day off (not working) but still get paid for it.
“If everybody were able to work from home just one day a week, it would save around one percent of global oil consumption.”
A pittance. So switching to an electric car would have no effect on “climate change”. Big surprise.
US Multinationals Purging Online Climate Action Pages.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/03/14/us-multinationals-purging-online-references-to-climate-action/
More evidence of the ongoing collapse of the climate movement.
US multinationals purge website references to climate change.
Walmart and Kraft Heinz among big corporations deleting or rewriting statements as Trump climate attacks intensify
Big companies and non-profit groups have begun purging or rewriting references to climate change on their websites, mirroring similar action by US government departments in response to the policies of Donald Trump.
Financial Times analysis shows that statements on climate change from leading corporations including Walmart and Kraft Heinz have been deleted or rewritten over the past year at the same time as a Republican backlash against green action has intensified and companies have begun rolling back their net zero targets.
Charities also told the FT they were rejigging their websites, with one US non-profit group that operates internationally saying they had scrubbed whole pages about climate change online, partly in a bid to help shore up US grants.
Interestingly some of them apparently started purging online climate content before the November election, possibly in anticipation of a Trump victory.
Obviously if a radical climate activist is elected to the White House all the statements of climate commitment will be dusted off and restored. But in my opinion this shows how little corporations and charities genuinely care about climate change, and the fundamental weakness of the climate movement.
The Ides of March are upon us.
Beware!
“…this vast increase in the market value of asset claims is in part the indirect result of investors accepting lower compensation for risk. Such an increase in market value is too often viewed by market participants as structural and permanent. To some extent, those higher values may be reflecting the increased flexibility and resilience of our economy. But what they perceive as newly abundant liquidity can readily disappear. Any onset of increased investor caution elevates risk premiums and, as a consequence, lowers asset values and promotes the liquidation of the debt that supported higher asset prices. This is the reason that history has not dealt kindly with the aftermath of protracted periods of low risk premiums.”
– Remarks by Chairman Alan Greenspan
‘Reflections on central banking’
At a symposium sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Jackson Hole, Wyoming
August 26, 2005
https://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/speeches/2005/20050826/default.htm
“…history has not dealt kindly with the aftermath of protracted periods of low risk premiums.”
To mimic Captain Obvious, we recently went through one of those protracted periods of low risk premiums, roughly from early 2009 through 2022.
And then the bond market imploded…
Bloomberg
Wall Street’s wiew on S&P 500 profits is souring as tariffs loom
Jessica Menton and Alexandra Semenova
Updated Sat, March 15, 2025 at 5:44 AM PDT 4 min read
(Bloomberg) — Wall Street’s confidence in Corporate America’s profit engine is fraying, threatening more turbulence ahead for a badly bruised US stock market.
Though the broad outlook for corporate earnings remains strong, analysts have been steadily trimming their expectations for company results in the next 12 months. Profit forecasts for S&P 500 Index companies have seen more downgrades than upgrades for 22 of the past 23 weeks, according to Bloomberg Intelligence, the longest stretch since early 2023.
…
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/wall-street-view-p-500-120000942.html
“This sucker could go down” — George W. Bush
The Moneyist
‘Is it finally time to freak out?’ I’m in my 50s and worried about the $650K in my 401(k).
‘Recession is in the air. The stock market is in a downward spiral.’
By Quentin Fottrell
Last Updated: March 15, 2025 at 7:22 a.m. ET
First Published: March 11, 2025 at 5:22 a.m. ET
“I’m trying to hang in there with my job for the next decade or so.”
(Photo subject is a model.) Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto
Dear Quentin,
Is it finally time to freak out?
I’ve read letters from people concerned about their retirement and losing their wealth due to Trump’s trade war — and, yes, I do think it’s a trade war (whether you agree with it or not). I am in my early 50s and have approximately $650,000 in a 401(k) and I am counting the days until I turn 59½ so I can access it without paying a 10% early withdrawal fee. That, and Social Security.
I’m trying to hang in there with my job for the next decade or so, with the constant fear of being told, “It’s time for you to go.” This woman was worried about whether she should sell her shares and buy gold, but I don’t have that luxury. I am just trying not to lose my cool. But forgive me for being dramatic. Recession is in the air. The stock market is in a downward spiral.
What do you recommend I do?
Not Feeling Calm
Dear Calmless,
Even stock-market spirals don’t last forever.
As to your question (or fears) about a recession, you’re right. That’s what appears to be behind the latest tumble in the stock market. The S&P 500 (SPX
+2.13%), Dow Jones Industrial Average
(DJIA +1.65%) and Nasdaq (COMP +2.61%) all tumbled this week over lingering fears of a recession. The market left a streak of red last week, but the S&P 500 closed Friday with biggest daily gain since November as tech stocks bounced back.
In an interview broadcast on Fox News on Sunday, President Trump refused to rule out a recession related to his tariffs, which analysts say contributed to the fall in shares. “I hate to predict things like that.” That does not mean, it should be noted, that he can’t and won’t change his mind. Your 401(k) will take a hit. Heck, it already has. But while you can access it penalty-free at 59½, hopefully you don’t have to.
Here are positives: Trump has inherited, by most measures, a strong economy from former President Joe Biden. Inflation cooled after economists worried the economy was overheating, with the consumer-price index currently running below 3%. The tariffs, which most observers believe will heat up inflation, are not a given in their current form. The goalposts keep moving.
We, in the U.S., have near full employment. Unemployment was 4.1% in February, up from 4% in January. Gross domestic product growth in the second quarter outperformed many economists’ more pessimistic expectations due to persistently high interest rates and worries about the cost of living on everything from eggs to real estate. The labor-participation rate is also north of 80%.
The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis issues a regular report looking at the prospect of a recession in the U.S. Their indicator is based on real-time data. As you can see from this graph, the likelihood of a recession in 2025 is still slim. It peaked in mid-2020 and has been in steady decline this year. What can you do? Build up your emergency savings, pay off debts, rent a room if you have one to spare.
But there’s no reason to sugarcoat the outlook because nobody knows for sure. Moody’s chief economist Mark Zandi has upped his predictions of an economic downturn. “The risks of a U.S. recession starting in the coming year are uncomfortably high and rising,” he said Monday. “I would put them at 35%, up from 15% at the start of the year.” J.P. Morgan puts it at 40%, blaming “extreme U.S. policies.”
…
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/is-it-finally-time-to-freak-out-im-in-my-50s-and-worried-about-the-650k-in-my-401-k-49f71441
Newsweek
Will Recession Spark a Housing Market Crash? What to Know
Published Mar 13, 2025 at 5:42 AM EDT
By Giulia Carbonaro
US News Reporter
Amid growing chances of the U.S. plunging into a recession this year, housing experts have reassured American homeowners that the value of their properties will not crash even in the face of a major economic downturn.
Two consecutive quarters of negative real gross domestic product are often considered a recession, which is characterized by a widespread decline in economic activity.
While a recession could cool the U.S. housing market, which is in the midst of an affordability crunch, a new report by the real estate brokerage Redfin said it would not lead to a crash, as most homeowners sitting on low mortgages and high-value properties are unlikely to be forced to sell.
Why It Matters
Speaking with Fox News on Sunday, President Donald Trump did not rule out the possibility of a recession hitting the country this year. “I hate to predict things like that,” Trump said. “There is a period of transition because what we’re doing is very big. We’re bringing wealth back to America.”
…
https://www.newsweek.com/will-recession-spark-housing-market-crash-what-know-2043954
Finance·Berkshire Hathaway
Warren Buffett saw the selloff coming and hoarded cash, analyst says, as markets await his next move — ‘patience is more than a virtue, it’s a weapon’
BY Stuart Dyos
March 15, 2025 at 12:44 PM PDT
CEO and Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Warren Buffett in New York City
Daniel Zuchnik—WireImage
After Warren Buffett sold $134 billion in equities in 2024 and is sitting on a $334 billion cash pile, one analyst said the “Oracle of Omaha” saw the current selloff coming. While it’s unlikely Buffett will make any big moves during the current market turmoil, some think he’ll look internationally or round out his insurance business.
Amid the stock market selloff, Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett’s recent capital movements suggest he was preparing for it, according to an analyst.
After tumbling more than 10% from its last peak, the Nasdaq remains in correction territory. The S&P 500 also entered a correction, though Friday’s rally pared its decline to less than 10% from its all-time record.
…
https://fortune.com/2025/03/15/warren-buffett-berkshire-hathaway-stock-market-correction-cash-pile-acquisitions/
Does it alarm you to see Uncle Warren packing up everything and battening down the hatches, like the Wizard of Oz did just before the twister blew Dorothy and Toto all the way to Oz?
Warren Buffett’s latest move sends ominous warning about state of housing market
By BEN SHIMKUS, CONSUMER REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
20:28 13 Mar 2025,
Updated 21:16 13 Mar 2025
Warren Buffett is likely selling his real estate empire – the latest warning sign that the property market is in dire straits.
The real estate market has been on the skids in recent years. Brokerage companies have attempted to consolidate as home sales remain very low.
Compass, the largest real estate brokerage in the country, is in advanced talks to acquire Berkshire Hathaway’s HomeServices of America, the fourth-biggest player in the industry, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Buffett, the 94-year-old investment icon known as the ‘Oracle of Omaha,’ appears to be stepping back from the real estate game.
The financial details of the potential acquisition haven’t been disclosed, but sources say an agreement is close, barring any last-minute snags.
If the deal goes through, it would mark another major consolidation in a housing market already struggling with sluggish sales.
Would-be homebuyers have been sidelined for years due to sky-high mortgage rates, tight housing inventory, and record-breaking home prices.
In a recent earnings call, Compass’ CEO, Robert Reffkin, touted the brokerage’s size as a competitive edge.
‘I believe 2025 will be the year that the gap between Compass and the industry widens,’ he said.
‘By leveraging our structural advantages and our affiliation with the Christie’s International Real Estate brand, we are positioning ourselves to accelerate our market share gains.’
Compass has been on a tear, scooping up smaller brokerage firms throughout the U.S.
In December, the company announced it was bringing Christie’s International Real Estate and @properties under its wings.
It also added Washington Fine Properties, a boutique luxury brokerage in the nation’s capital in February.
A shrinking pool of brokerages could further limit consumer choice in an industry already stacked against the average buyer.
Buffett bye-bye?
Buffett’s latest potential sell-off is yet another example of the billionaire investor hording cash and exiting the market.
Real Estate sales in the U.S. have remained sluggish as mortgage rates hit record highs
The iconic Berkshire Hathaway owner, now 94-years-old, has set prognosticators ablaze, with rumors flying that he is either retiring or anticipating a recession.
Buffett has sold off shares of companies like DaVita, Bank of America, CitiGroup, and Apple.
He even sold ETFs he had recently praised as money-makers.
…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/yourmoney/article-14496595/Warren-Buffetts-latest-sends-ominous-warning-state-housing-market.html
Between big tech lay-offs and fast food suppliers downsizing I’m certain that even Stevie Wonder could “see” the proverbial writing on the wall.
The bond market is predicting a recession within a year. These stock funds can help you ride it out.
Provided by Dow Jones Mar 7, 2025 9:00am
By Philip van Doorn
On Thursday, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s GDP Now model was indicating that the U.S. economy contracted at an annual rate of 2.4% during the first quarter. A recession is typically defined as starting with two consecutive quarters of economic contraction. But any expectation for a contraction is alarming to investors, who were more than content with the Bureau of Economic Analysis’s estimates that the U.S. gross domestic product increased at an annual rate of 2.3% during the fourth quarter and at a rate of 2.8% for all of 2024.
So we don’t know if a recession has started, but the bond market’s recent action has made it clear that investors expect one. This chart shows the movement of yields on 10-year U.S. Treasury notes and 3-month Treasury bills over the past 12 months:
When the Federal Reserve was focused on tamping down inflation by keeping the federal-funds rate in a target range of 5.25% to 5.50%, the Treasury yield curve was inverted. Investors could earn higher yields overnight than they could by purchasing 10-year government paper. But after the Fed began a cycle of three short-term rate cuts on Sept. 18, bringing the federal-funds rate down to its current target range of 4.25% to 4.50%, long-term rates rose quickly enough for the rate curve to go back to a normal slope, with the 10-year yield well above the 3-month yield in mid-January.
But that action has now reversed – the bond market always looks ahead. Demand for long-term bonds has increased as institutional bond investors want to lock in the highest rates they can, because they anticipate a significant further reduction in short-term rates as the Fed shifts its policy to spur economic growth. Higher demand means higher bond prices. When bond prices rise, their yields fall, and vice versa. And the newly inverted yield curve indicates that investors expect a recession.
…
https://www.morningstar.com/news/marketwatch/20250307267/the-bond-market-is-predicting-a-recession-within-a-year-these-stock-funds-can-help-you-ride-it-out
Consumers and Businesses Send Distress Signal as Economic Fear Sets In.
Canceled trips, fewer dinner parties and falling sales: ‘We are cutting back on virtually everything’.
https://archive.ph/khFyA
[Some snips …]
Consumers are starting to freak out.
President Trump’s stop-and-start trade wars and other rapid-fire policy changes are making Americans feel gloomy about the economy. Their 401(k)s are down, and their expectations for inflation are up. Now they are paring back spending on extras such as vacations and home-improvement projects.
The University of Michigan’s closely watched index of consumer sentiment nosedived 11% to 57.9 in mid-March from 64.7 last month. Sentiment among Democrats was the lowest ever recorded, including the depths of the 2008-09 financial crisis. Even Republicans are feeling worse, although many think that any short-term economic pain caused by Trump’s moves will be worth it. On a recent Sunday, Trump declined to rule out a recession.
Bleak sentiment about the economy can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Nervous consumers tend to cut back, which weighs on spending and economic growth. While economists have been marking down their estimates for the economy, they still expect it to grow.
“The consumer drives the U.S. economy,” said Rebecca Patterson, an economist and senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. “Where the consumer goes the economy goes.”
The sour mood is starting to show up in key data. Consumer spending in January had its largest monthly drop in around four years, though some of that might be attributed to lousy weather. Bank of America said customers spent 2% more on their credit and debit cards over the seven days ended March 8, compared with a year earlier, but said spending on airlines fell by 7.1% and home-improvement expenditures were down 2.7%.
“Consumers cut back first on the nice-to-haves and the big-ticket items,” said Patterson. “Within the must-haves like food, they might switch to a lower-cost brand.” People might only cut back modestly because the job market is solid, and many are still enjoying big gains in their personal wealth from higher home prices, she said.
Companies making everything from casual wear to luxury goods and liquor to everyday staples are sounding early warnings of a slowdown in consumer demand. Delta Air Lines and American Airlines cut their first-quarter guidance this past week. On Tuesday, Delta Chief Executive Officer Ed Bastian said that there was “something going on with economic sentiment, something going on with consumer confidence.”
Budget-pressured shoppers are exhibiting “stress behaviors, and we worry about that,” Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said during a Feb. 27 presentation at the Economic Club of Chicago. “You can see that the money runs out before the month is gone,” he added. Working-class and middle-class consumers, hit hard by higher prices, were already beginning to cut back before the November election.
In February, small-business uncertainty reached its second-highest level in the more than 50 years that the National Federation of Independent Business has been polling small-business owners, the group said. The highest reading was in October, just before the election. Sales expectations declined for a second month in a row after surging following the vote.
People might only cut back modestly because the job market is solid, and many are still enjoying big gains in their personal wealth from higher home prices, she said.
Translation: will go into debt to keep up appearances. Isn’t that what people have been doing for decades?
“enjoying big gains in their personal wealth from higher home prices”
Debt Donkeys gonna donk.
‘Condo prices are actually falling in many parts of the Sunshine State, in part because HOA fees have surged so much.’”
Gosh, I fear that such fundamentals could have an adverse impact on Always Be Closing.
‘There have been a few people that were angry and upset.’”
They’re not without recourse. They can always stamp their little feet.
High School guidance counselors have confirmed that students who are habitual liars invariably gravitate toward careers in the REIC.
Realtors are liars.
Realtors are liars.
‘Canadians aren’t used to being received as invaders when living or spending time on American soil and enjoying time with their neighbors.
Canadians elected a globalist quisling government that is all-in on the Great Replacement, and is flooding Canada with unassimilable benefits spongers, Islamic extremists, and members of ethnic criminal gangs. Trump is entirely correct to throw up barriers to entry to “Canadians” given the demographic changes brought about by Lil’ Fidel and his Liberal Party globalist accomplices.
Per wikipedia, Canada is now only 50% “European”. Another 20% are “North American”. whatever that means.
Many years ago I was in Toronto on business. One day I had breakfast at The Swiss Chalet. I noticed all of the waitresses were east Asian. I concluded they should rename it the Taipei Chalet.
‘People are getting shamed for selling, but the bottom line is people need money and want to get the most for their property,’ Ramiro Rivas said.
Gosh, I sure hope those shame-sellers distress-selling their alligators doesn’t hurt the comps. The evaporation of Yellen Bux value due to forced selling means the FOMO lemmings of recent years could very well find themselves underwater. This is my “gravely concerned” face.
‘They’re trying to sell their homes because they’re in a very vulnerable financial situation,’ Loya said.”
Gosh, I hope no one vulners them. That would be just plain mean.
The wise and prudent who exchanged their debauched Yellen Bux for God’s money during the Biden regime are being rewarded for reading the writing on the wall.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/gold-hits-fresh-record-us-225452531.html
late tonight. Elon will bring our astronauts back home.
Live coverage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEIVv55Vhas
“Elon will bring our astronauts back home.”
Hopefully in one piece, each.
As good as the Crew Dragon is, there are no guarantees.
No, thank you. I remember the Challenger disaster.
The commies in the CA statehouse fail to realize that any and all taxes on insurance companies will be passed to consumers. Forward, Soviet!
https://justthenews.com/nation/states/center-square/ca-approves-22-rate-hike-states-top-property-insurer
The seething from the Democrat-Bolsheviks & globalist scum media will be monumental as Trump 2.0 moves to bar entry to potential terrorists, criminals, fraudsters, and parasites.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14501691/trump-travel-ban-countries-list-visa.html
Die, STR speculator scum.
https://x.com/novapilgrim/status/1900660787095740477
The Ukraine war has enriched Ukrainian oligarchs beyond their wildest dreams, while generating massive kickbacks for the DNC and its financial backers.
https://x.com/liz_churchill10/status/1900929615591362969
Ukraine isn’t a real country, it’s a money laundering economic zone.
Oh dear….
https://x.com/FCNightingale/status/1900663247973572858
“Home-buying conditions have rarely been worse.” Each new month’s data paints a grimmer picture for the REIC.
https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1900630258845708750
I saw some woman who was a Soros sponsored loon with pink hair and a nose ring being interviewed at the red shirted protest in the Trump building this week. It made me think that she probably used to be somebody’s wife before she got indoctrinated.
Which in turn reminded me of a song on AM radio when I was a kid.
Say, Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Gypsy Rose
https://youtu.be/yBEER06xrx8?si=TgoTBMXYRzOwWono
I saw a woman running with her dog on a mountain not too far outside of Denver today.
Friend with me today (hiking, not running) did not bring his dog because she is still too young and not strong enough yet. Still winter conditions, lots of ice on the trail, elevation 9,000.
“I saw a woman running with her dog on a mountain…”
Also at 9,000-ft?
‘Vitriol and blame.’ Laid-off federal workers face polarized landscape and uncertainty
When local companies in the Puget Sound region have cut jobs in the past, bitterness generally has been directed at the employer, not the employees.
One expert explained why that’s not what’s happening today when it comes to federal workers.
Kathleen Cook is a professor and practicum director in the Department of Psychology at Seattle University. In an interview Wednesday with The News Tribune, she said it’s not surprising the public response to federal layoffs is more reactionary than what you’d see in private-sector firings.
“Normally, when there’s a layoff, it’s a layoff driven by a business decision, and that business decision, the particular business, rarely has a particular value embedded in it,” she said.
“In this situation, they aren’t layoffs in the sense of the way we’ve always thought of them. Now all these things have been conflated with particular ideologies, particular values, particular statements of what and how the world should be.”
Rebecca Howard was a former research fish biologist at the NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center. She said a career in marine science was something she’d worked toward since childhood.
Howard’s work involved assessing Alaska’s populations of shellfish and ground fish, and she said she considered it her “dream job.”
“I have been working toward a career in marine science since I was a child, and the indiscriminate firing of federal employees not only affects my career, it also jeopardizes the work that NOAA Fisheries does at the Alaska Fishery Science Center,” she said.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/vitriol-and-blame-laid-off-federal-workers-face-polarized-landscape-and-uncertainty/ar-AA1AUVHo
Laid-off federal workers face polarized landscape and uncertainty
So do laid off workers from the private sector, but unless they’re union the media rarely cares.
Anyway, these laid off feds keep taking their dejobbing personally. It was a business decision plain and simple. We have to borrow $2T a year to fund their departments, and that is unsustainable.
Democrat-Bolsheviks were all-in on “follow the science,” which was a sham aimed at convincing the sheeple to roll up their sleeves for the clot shot. Now as the “died suddenly” death toll and vaccine injured mounts into the hundreds of thousands, millions of formerly trusting sheeple have learned the hard way to never again trust “science” touted by globalist minions.
https://nitter.poast.org/jimmy_dore/status/1900741391346790413#m (w/ 2m4s video):
Watch How the Measles Narrative Has Done a COMPLETE 180!
A reply w/ 25m31s video:
The Brady Bunch – S1E13 –
Is There a Doctor in the House?
From 1969, here’s the FULL “banned” measles Brady Bunch episode!
This was removed from all streaming services in 2019 and shows a world that treated measles VERY differently.
While not virulent, measles is extremely contagious.
I still have traces of Camelot lingering in my hippocampus, so I don’t listen to or read anything that a Kennedy has to say. 🙂
traces of Camelot
Arguably the greatest philanderer in chief.
And which vaccine is most suspected to have a causal relationship with autism? MMR.
Discredited by the medical community, as I am sure you know…
PB’s on my Ignore List, but to provide some context. My “dream” job, for which I was completely qualified, was with the investor behind Moderna. After 2020, I can’t in good conscience sell my skills to a genocidal industry.
Trump’s Science Cuts Have Thrown the Research World Into Chaos
Harvard University is imposing a temporary freeze on hiring faculty. Columbia University is grappling with cuts to $400 million in federal funding. California Institute of Technology is leaving postdoctoral positions unfilled. A University of Washington researcher is wondering about a climate and health grant after a government site was taken offline.
This is an ecosystem that benefits everyone and has kept the US at the forefront,” Fiona Harrison, the chair of Caltech’s division of physics, mathematics and astronomy, writes in an email. “The situation is jeopardizing our Nation’s ability to stay at the forefront of science and engineering by reducing or eliminating a generation of young technical talent,” she adds.
In February, the National Institutes of Health said it was slashing rates to 15% for overhead in grants, which awardees can use to cover the indirect costs of everything from building maintenance to tech support. The institute commonly covers more than half of those costs. While a Massachusetts district court judge put a hold on cuts last week, the potential change is weighing on researchers.
“Every day, there’s something new and something I was not ready for and my colleagues weren’t ready for,” says Alexandra Tate, a University of Chicago sociologist and lecturer. She has two NIH grant proposals, worth nearly $650,000 combined, in limbo. “I don’t know where my career’s going from here.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/trump-s-science-cuts-have-thrown-the-research-world-into-chaos/ar-AA1AUipU
Harvard University is imposing a temporary freeze on hiring faculty.
Uh, why? Harvard has a $50B endowment fund, Say they can get 5% interest on that. That’s $2.5 billion a year in income. Why do they need federal grants?
Much more pleasurable to spend other peoples money.
U.S. gender backlash hitting UN agencies, Canadian ambassador Bob Rae says
Canada is mobilizing to advance gender equity and feminism in global forums as the Trump administration attempts to roll back diversity programming at the United Nations.
“We’re in a major fight at the moment about equity, about diversity, about LGBTQ+ rights — generally, about even the concept of gender,” Bob Rae, Canada’s ambassador to the UN, said in an interview.
“Absolutely, it’s a struggle. We’re up against a number of countries that are simply not willing to accept these concepts as being valid and important.”
Rae said the U.S. is increasingly partnering with countries that don’t share Canada’s values.
“Globally, we see this as a fight now, where the United States is joining Russia, and a number of other countries — and frankly, the Holy See — who are really pushing back hard on what they see as the values proposition, from their point of view,” he said.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/article/us-gender-backlash-hitting-un-agencies-canadian-ambassador-bob-rae-says/
“We’re in a major fight at the moment about equity, about diversity, about LGBTQ+ rights — generally, about even the concept of gender,” Bob Rae, Canada’s ambassador to the UN, said in an interview.
Globalists gonna globe.
“Absolutely, it’s a struggle. We’re up against a number of countries that are simply not willing to accept these concepts as being valid and important.”
That’s because they are neither valid nor important. Only in the demonic “West” do they matter at all.
San Francisco city worker, partner accused of $500K welfare scam
A San Francisco city employee and her partner are facing multiple charges for allegedly defrauding public agencies out of $500,000 in welfare, including Section 8 housing and childcare benefits, prosecutors said.
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins announced that 49-year-old Maggie Pasigan and 47-year-old Daisy Avalos were arraigned Thursday on charges of grand theft, welfare fraud, money laundering and conspiracy. Both Pasigan and Avalos pleaded not guilty.
Court records show the city’s Human Services Agency began investigating Pasigan in 2023 for alleged fraud, saying she did not disclose that Avalos was her domestic partner and Avalos’ income as a city employee. The income would have disqualified their household for public benefits.
“The defendants’ fraudulent actions diverted over $375,000 in taxpayer funds from multiple federal programs, including HUD-assisted housing programs designed to provide safe and affordable housing for low-income families,” said Special Agent-In-Charge Robert Lawler of the HUD Office of Inspector General.
In addition to the housing benefits, Pasigan and Avalos are accused of receiving more than $30,000 a month in childcare benefits from a nonprofit contractor that stewarded public dollars for childcare and early education.
Investigators said the women claimed to have provided childcare to as many as 17 children. Surveillance over several months showed there was no evidence of drop-offs, pickups or any other signs of children under their care.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/san-francisco-city-worker-partner-accused-of-500k-welfare-scam/ar-AA1AW77T
The hustlers never work, and the workers never hustle.
Unhoused in Vallejo: ‘A stray animal would have received a bone and a forever home by now’
After 17 years of cycling through penitentiary systems, Bambi Boyer still finds herself stuck in what she describes as a similarly flawed system — Solano County’s supportive services.
Despite two emotionally taxing years seeking aid from every corner of the county, Boyer is still waitlisted and unhoused.
Admitted at 18, it wasn’t until her release at the age of 36 that her life had officially begun. A year after her release in 2016, while residing with her mother, Boyer found out that she was pregnant. Still caught in the whirlwind of first-time pregnancy and bogged down by stigmas surrounding those formerly incarcerated, finding a steady gig was tough.
As a result of half her life spent in prison, her social skills were rusty, leading to mental health issues. In 2021, during the residual panic of the COVID pandemic, she was officially displaced for the first time. By then then she was pregnant with her second child, and she found shelter around motel rooms until connecting with Vallejo’s Fighting Back Partnership and Solano County Rapid Rehousing.
Like most at-risk residents, she received the standard 16-day homeless assistance. “I got CalWORKS and Cal Fresh, but was always asking ‘Okay what do I do from day 17 to day 365?’” she said.
From there she had no other choice but to get on Vallejo’s housing waitlists. After several weeks, she was sent to live at the Windmill RV park off Admiral Callaghan Lane, a woman and infant program equipped with daycare services and job placement assistance.
But even at first glance, she knew that couldn’t be true.
“There was paraphernalia on my lawn and high voltage wires were wrapped around a chain-linked fence,” Boyer said, “When I got there, I was the only person with a kid of any kind.”
For two years, they lived under these conditions. Then in 2023, Boyer was informed by her caseworker that Fighting Back Partnership — which shelled out the $1,800 monthly rent — had lost funding.
So as a Plan B and in a scramble for permanence, she connected with Fairfield’s Housing Authority, where she miraculously managed to secure an apartment through its revival of a subsidized housing program — or so she thought. Just before the keys were handed over, Boyer’s Fairfield team got wind that she was not only residing in Vallejo but also receiving support from their Fighting Back Partnership program.
“They told me that they couldn’t cross-jurisdiction even though it was all Solano County. That once I go to Vallejo they have to basically wash their hands of me,” Boyer says.
Although Boyer said that the organization told her that they would “try to look into it,” Boyer “never heard from them again.”
The Times-Herald contacted Vallejo Fighting Back Partnership. which stated that “they are not going to speak to or verify the information.” Two hours later Fighting Back Partnership stated they have no record on file of Bambi Boyer.
While the two programs both function to secure housing for Solano County residents — in Boyer’s eyes it instead felt like a toxic rivalry.
“I thought they’d all be happy for me, that I finally got housing and I was one more a person they could cross off their list, but no,” Boyer explained. “It has to do with the check because whoever has me, has the funding for me.”
“A stray animal would have received a bone and a forever home by now,” Boyer explained, “I am trying so hard to hold on. But my kids tell me I lied to them because we still don’t have a home.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/unhoused-in-vallejo-a-stray-animal-would-have-received-a-bone-and-a-forever-home-by-now/ar-AA1AX7Lu
A prime candidate for court-ordered sterilization.
Unhoused in Vallejo: ‘A stray animal would have received a bone and a forever home by now’
Actually, most are undesirable and never adopted, and are euthanized.
Vallejo has so many Section 8 apartment complexes, which were prime repo hunting grounds for “first payment default cars” back in the day. These complexes were really hopping at night, selling young women, drugs and stolen firearms. Pure ghetto!
Restaurant owners feel trapped after SF buys their building for formerly homeless youth
In San Francisco, the owners of a popular Burmese restaurant say they are feeling trapped after the city bought the building where they lease to turn the upstairs into housing for formerly homeless individuals.
“We didn’t have any clue what is happening on the building,” said Kay Zin, co-owner of Bay of Burma.
The Burmese restaurant is located on the ground floor of 1174 Folsom St. In San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood.
On the first day they opened, Kay Zin said a neighbor broke the news to them. The city had purchased the building and the tenants above them were moving out – to make way for a new project
“At first they were intended for a safe injection center,” said Kay Zin.
Kay and Ryan co-own the restaurant and have invested over $300,000. For over a year, they have been communicating with the city’s homelessness and supportive housing department trying to find solutions.
“I was simply asking for them to reimburse for the construction cost because that is all of our savings. I just wanted to relocate to a safer place,” said Kay Zin.
In 2024, the city changed plans and said a different project would go in.
The new plan is to turn it into supportive housing for homeless youth.
Bay of Burma owners Kay and Ryan Zin said their business has been robbed twice at gunpoint and they have seen crime spike in the area, which is home to other city-run aid centers like an addiction treatment center, a sobering center and a homeless shelter.
They are afraid the new project will add to that. “We are asking for more safety,” said Ryan Zin, co-owner of Bay of Burma.
In a statement, HSH said they have been working with this community for over a year and described the housing complex as:
“A critical and much needed step towards solutions for young people struggling to exit homelessness and gain stability.”
“We are the tenants, too. If you want the whole building, take it. We will go somewhere else. We don’t want to deal with everything that we don’t want to because we want to focus on our business, but our hands are tied,” said Ryan Zin.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/realestate/restaurant-owners-feel-trapped-after-sf-buys-their-building-for-homeless-shelter/ar-AA1ATowf
His first mistake was opening a restaurant in San Francisco.
China isn’t happy about sale of Panama Canal port to American finance giant
Last week’s agreement to sell two ports on the Panama Canal to a U.S. consortium led by BlackRock appeared to be another example of the savvy deal-making that has made Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing one of the richest men in Asia.
Facing intense pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump, Mr. Li’s CK Hutchison Holdings moved quickly to divest itself of an increasingly awkward asset, one that was at risk of being seized by either the Panamanian or U.S. governments. And it got a good return – BlackRock has agreed to pay US$19-billion for a majority stake in Hutchison Ports – just as global trade disruptions mean traffic through the canal could decrease, making the ports less profitable.
Hutchison – a global conglomerate with stakes in everything from telecommunications to airport parking – was facing heavy scrutiny for being a “Chinese” company amid Mr. Trump’s renewed trade war with China.
The BlackRock deal was announced as Chinese leaders were meeting in Beijing for the annual session of the country’s rubber-stamp parliament, so most observers assumed it was done with the tacit approval of Beijing, which had repeatedly distanced itself from Hutchison, saying China had no political influence over Panama – nor did it seek any.
Late Thursday, however, a state-run newspaper in Hong Kong blasted Hutchison’s move as a “betrayal of all Chinese people” and a “mercenary act which disregards national interests.” The unsigned op-ed was republished on the website of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council, the Chinese body responsible for its two special administrative regions.
In an ironic mirroring of Mr. Trump’s own accusations of Chinese control of the Panama Canal, the op-ed said that under Blackrock ownership, the U.S. could use the ports “for political purposes and promote its own political agenda.”
“China’s shipping and trade here will inevitably be subject to the U.S.,” it added, just as Washington was “doing its utmost to contain and suppress China’s development.”
“Faced with such a major event and a matter of great justice, the relevant companies should think twice, think carefully about the nature and crux of the issue, and think carefully about what position and side they should stand on,” the op-ed said.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/international-business/article-china-isnt-happy-about-sale-of-panama-canal-port-to-american-finance/
Catholic Charities Fort Worth could lay off 169 employees amid federal funding pause
Catholic Charities Fort Worth, which has led refugee resettlement in Texas since 2021, could lay off 169 employees as early as Friday.
The charity, which operates the Texas Office for Refugees, filed a notice March 10 with the Texas Workforce Commission’s Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification, also known as WARN. The federal government requires employers to give 60 calendar days’ advance notice of a mass layoff to affected employees and government entities.
The notice listed its layoff date as March 14. Catholic Charities Fort Worth, which employs nearly 400 people across 28 counties, declined to comment.
The filing comes days after the organization sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., accusing the federal government of unlawfully withholding more than $36 million in refugee resettlement funds since Jan. 29. That number rose to $42 million as of March 4, according to recent court filings.
“These funds, mandated by law for organizations contracted by the federal government to care for these individuals and families, are crucial for providing essential services to those fleeing persecution in their home countries,” Michael Iglio, Catholic Charities CEO, and Jeff Demers, state refugee coordinator of the Texas Office for Refugees, said in a March 3 statement.
https://www.keranews.org/news/2025-03-14/catholic-charities-fort-worth-could-lay-off-169-employees-amid-federal-funding-pause
Catholic Charities has been at the forefront of the Great Replacement. All NGOs facilitating globalist agendas should be barred from receiving taxpayer funding. Let Soros & his ilk use their own money for bankrolling such projects.
It is interesting how charities like this one went from running soup kitchens and foodbanks to providing “refugee services”, with Federal funding. Now that the free money is gone some of these organizations might revert to their original missions.
The green groups that got the $20 billion in ‘gold bars’ from the EPA
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin’s efforts to cancel $20 billion in climate grants meant to fund clean energy projects in low-income communities have led to litigation and controversy.
The grants were issued through the Biden administration’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which was established as part of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act passed by Democrats and signed by former President Joe Biden and included hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies for clean energy. The fund was given a total of $27 billion, with $7 billion for a solar program called Solar for All and $20 billion to be distributed to eight nonprofit organizations through two major initiatives: the National Clean Investment Fund and the Clean Communities Investment Accelerator.
During the Biden administration, the EPA picked three selectees for the $14 billion National Clean Investment Fund and five selectees for the $6 billion Clean Communities Investment Accelerator to help “create a national clean financing network for clean energy and climate solutions … .” The administration assigned Citibank to manage the $20 billion grants for the eight nonprofit organizations.
Zeldin said the previous administration improperly distributed the funds and routed them through Citibank and a number of outside organizations in order to avoid oversight.
Zeldin has cited a video filmed last year in which a former EPA employee tells an undercover member of the conservative group Project Veritas that the Biden administration was trying to distribute the promised funds as quickly as possible before Inauguration Day.
“It truly feels like we’re on the Titanic, and we’re throwing like gold bars off the edge,” the former employee says in the video.
The EPA has since withheld the grant money from the organizations. Some intended recipients, though, have sued the EPA and Citibank to stop them from withholding the funds. As of now, the Solar for All program has remained untouched.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/rundown-the-green-groups-that-got-the-20-billion-in-gold-bars-from-the-epa/ar-AA1ATKUK
The DOGE effect is hitting Panem on the Potomac.
https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1900952089682936124
What U.S. energy dominance looks like – it’s all about natural gas
As legions of oil, gas, electricity and pipeline executives circulated through corridors and meeting halls at the world’s biggest energy conference this week, there was a palpable vibe shift from the past few years. It was fuelled by the policies of a disruptive, pro-fossil-fuel U.S. President.
That message was on full display this week at energy conference CERAWeek by S&P Global in Houston, which served as a coming-out party for the Trump administration’s “drill, baby, drill” policies – pushing natural gas to power a coming boom in data centres and artificial intelligence computing and ramping up oil production from already-record levels.
Industry players also celebrated the end of restrictions on liquefied natural gas exports and offshore drilling that were imposed by former president Joe Biden.
Mr. Trump’s secretaries of energy and the interior as well as executives of major companies who spoke at the event decried past efforts to quickly move away from fossil fuels to green energy, arguing that they hobbled economic growth for little return. The pendulum had swung too far to the environmental side of the spectrum, they said.
“I’m honoured to play a role in reversing what I believe has been very poor direction in energy policy,” U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright proclaimed in setting the tone for the event. “The previous administration’s policy was focused myopically on climate change, with people as simply collateral damage.”
Mr. Wright, a former fracking executive, asserted that there was no way wind, solar and battery power could replace the many uses of natural gas, which fuels 43 per cent of U.S. electricity. The goal, instead, should be making energy in all its forms abundant for everyone to improve quality of life, he said.
Renewed focus on fossil-fuel production, however, does not mean the end of the energy transition, said Jeff Currie, chief strategy officer of energy pathways at global investment company Carlyle and former commodities chief at Goldman Sachs. He is best known for predicting the commodity supercycle that was driven in large part by the massive expansion of the Chinese economy in the early 2000s.
He argued that energy has been in transition for decades, and that is still the case. In the 1970s, it was driven by a need for oil security, and climate became the driver a decade ago, he said.
“The security-driven energy transition moves faster than the climate one,” Mr. Currie told The Globe and Mail. “I want to emphasize: security over affordability over the environment. When those three get out of line you get into problems, like what happened in Germany last year.”
The European country, which has made a major shift to renewable power, hitting 59 per cent of generation last year, has been grappling with high energy costs borne by consumers and industries.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-what-us-energy-dominance-looks-like-its-all-about-natural-gas/
The European country, which has made a major shift to renewable power, hitting 59 per cent of generation last year, has been grappling with high energy costs borne by consumers and industries.
A relative works for a German multinational here in the US. The company rushing as fast as possible to move all production OUT of Germany. Some of it will come to the US, because of affordable energy.
Australia’s ambassador to the US, Kevin Rudd, details efforts to sway Donald Trump on steel and aluminium tariffs
Australia’s ambassador to the United States Kevin Rudd has promised to put his “shoulder to the wheel” to secure better trade relations with a “hardline” US but warned negotiations with the second Trump administration will continue to be “rough”.
The US on Wednesday refused to grant a tariff exemption to Australia on steel and aluminium imports to the United States, causing a political storm.
Nonetheless Mr Rudd, who has his own “nasty” history with Trump, has vowed to push on and fight for Australian interests in a new America that is less friendly to its allies.
“The America we’re dealing with since the 20th of January, is a vastly different America from the past, and in fact, significantly different from the period of the first Trump administration,” Mr Rudd told 7.30 in an exclusive interview.
“This administration is more nationalist on questions of foreign policy, more protectionist on trade policy, and much more transactional in its overall approach to international negotiations.
“These are deep-seated, fundamental changes in this different America, which every one of the 36 countries who negotiated tariff exemptions on steel and aluminium last time round, back in 2017, have had to contend with this time round.”
The man driving those negotiations from the US side is US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick.
Mr Lutnick singled out Australia for criticism alongside Japan and China, in a scathing attack on alleged dumping of steel and aluminium early on Thursday morning AEDT.
“You’ve got dumpers in the rest of the world. Japan dumps steel, China dumps steel … we’re going to stop that nonsense and bring steel here,” Mr Lutnick told Fox Business.
“We’re not going to stand for China dumping, Japan dumping … Australia does a lot of aluminium at below cost. I mean, this has got to end, and the president is on it, and he’s protecting America.”
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-13/kevin-rudd-details-australia-s-efforts-to-sway-donald-trump/105046514
Kiss the ring, Kevin. It’s your only option.
Some European counterparts thought U.S. annexation threats are a ‘joke’ during G7 meeting, Joly says
As Canada seeks to deepen ties across the pond, some Europeans haven’t realized the seriousness of U.S. annexation threats, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said at the conclusion of her meeting with G7 counterparts on Friday.
Ms. Joly’s comments come after symbolic gestures and officials’ comments on Canadian sovereignty at this week’s G7 meeting, which took place in the region of Charlevoix in Quebec.
“I think many of my colleagues coming here thought this issue was still a joke and that this had to be taken in a humorous way,” Ms. Joly said in a news conference.
“But I’ve said to them ‘this is not a joke. Canadians are anxious. Canadians are proud people, and you are here in a sovereign country. And so therefore, we don’t expect this to be even discussed, or to be clearly not laughed at.’”
However, U.S. tariffs and President Donald Trump’s repeated comments on taking over Canada cast a shadow on the gathering this week.
The U.S. imposed 25-per-cent tariffs on aluminum and steel imports on Wednesday, prompting Canada and the EU to respond with retaliatory tariffs.
Mr. Trump has also continued to suggest that that the U.S. should take over Canada and Greenland.
In a bilateral meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on Thursday, Mr. Trump said, “Canada only works as a state” and called the border between the two countries an “artificial line.” He also said he thinks annexing Greenland “will happen.”
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock sent a strong message of support to Canadians on Friday.
Ms. Baerbock said Germany believes sovereign borders are “inviolable” and must not be breached – and this applies to Ukraine and Greenland as much as it does to Canada.
“If you look at the final declaration underlining territorial integrity for countries, this means every country in the world – and obviously especially NATO countries like Canada, Germany, and all the others,” she said.
In a symbolic gesture of solidarity, Ms. Baerbock and EU Foreign Minister Kaja Kallas wore white and red outfits respectively on Thursday, representing the colours of the Canadian flag.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-some-european-counterparts-thought-us-annexation-threats-are-a-joke/
As Canada seeks to deepen ties across the pond, some Europeans haven’t realized the seriousness of U.S. annexation threats
Are they really that stupid and not see a supersized trolling? The threat to annex is simply a put down, DJT is telling Canada that it’s a frozen banana republic, and that it’s irrelevant and incompetent.
The K-dn Kevin O’Leary said Trump wants a currency union. He hangs out at Mar O Lago some so maybe he’s right.
supersized trolling
Monroe Doctrine 2.0: securing the Western Hemisphere from the Arctic Ocean to the Panama Canal
Puck around, find out: Florida and Canada are on a trade war collision course
Canada may not want to become America’s 51st state. But its residents have long found the 27th state irresistible.
Enticed by warm winters, beaches, theme parks and a friendly business climate, Florida’s been a major draw for Canadian tourists, snowbirds and entrepreneurs. Florida, too, benefits from $6 billion in imports from Canada — everything from aircraft and aerospace parts to construction materials and vegetables. But looming tariffs — and growing economic anxieties — have Canadians rethinking the orange juice they buy and their car and air travel to the Sunshine State.
Leaders from both Canada and Florida have engaged in verbal skirmishes as trade tensions have escalated. And some Canadians are even disavowing Wayne Gretzky, the country’s most beloved hockey export, now better known as a Palm Beach resident and MAGA supporter who joined celebrations at Mar-a-Lago when Donald Trump won back the White House.
Senior officials from all levels of Canadian government devoted weeks of back-and-forth travel to Washington in an effort to discourage the White House from slapping 25 percent tariffs on Canada. With Trump increasingly fixated on the idea of making Canada the 51st state, he’s imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum with plans for other sectors like dairy, timber and copper.
But between Canada and Florida, a war of words has raged at the upper echelons of government leadership.
When former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced retaliatory tariffs on 1,256 items, from household appliances to motorcycles and coffee, he encouraged Canadians to “do your part” by “changing your summer vacation plans” or picking domestic products at the grocery store, “foregoing Florida orange juice altogether.”
New polling shows a surge in Canadian pride in defiance of Trump’s threats. “There’s a new movement in Canada, and that’s our ‘Canada first’ movement,” Flavio Volpe of Canada’s Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association recently told CNN.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis couldn’t resist a Canadian counterpunch in his State of the State address on March 5, boasting about the fact that 3.3 million Canadian tourists had enjoyed the Sunshine State in 2024.
“That’s not much of a boycott in my book,” said DeSantis, referring to threats individual travelers had made in news reports about skipping out on Florida visits. “Maybe they wanted to get a glimpse of what a Stanley Cup winning hockey team actually looks like.” (The hockey barb was particularly harsh, considering the Florida Panthers beat the Edmonton Oilers in last year’s Stanley Cup Final.)
State economic reports show that although Canadians are the most frequent international visitors to Florida, and contribute to property tax revenue by buying more real estate in Florida than people from other countries, they also spend less than what domestic travelers spend. According to a 2021 state economic estimate, Canadian visitors spent an average of roughly $60 a day, while overseas visitors spent $101 and domestic travelers spent $165.
This isn’t the first time that Florida has clashed with Canada. Health regulators in Ottawa have been worried about creating drug shortages for years under a plan by DeSantis to import cheaper prescription drugs.
Florida was the first state to apply with the Food and Drug Administration to import drugs shortly after Trump called for the final authorization of the program, and federal regulators spent years reviewing the state’s application until it was finally approved just more than a year ago.
Much of the delay was blamed on a federal lawsuit filed by the pharmaceutical industry, which was rejected by a Washington federal judge in 2023.
Florida’s importation program has still yet to bring in any cheaper drugs that were estimated to save Florida taxpayers more than $180 million in the first year. In fact, the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration has given the top contractor for the program more than $60 million in tax dollars over the past four years, even though no drugs have come into the state. The contractor was negotiating with Canadian drug manufacturers as of Thursday, although there is no date set for the program to start.
DeSantis also blamed the delays on the Biden administration, but he hoped Trump’s return to the White House would speed up the final steps, despite continued opposition from Canada.
“They’ve been opposed to this from the beginning because it’s a golden goose for them,” DeSantis said shortly before he met with federal health regulators in Washington last month. “They get to have these discounted pharmaceuticals, and they’re basically being subsidized by American consumers.”
Canadians are clearly on the governor’s mind. At an event in Manatee County on Friday, DeSantis, responding to a question about the Tampa Bay Rays’ baseball stadium, repeated his hockey jab from the State of the State address — even calling out Trudeau by name on the day his successor took office in Ottawa.
Later in his remarks, DeSantis added a note on how often he’s seeing America’s northern neighbors in his state. “I’m running into Canadians left and right,” he said. “It’s anecdotal, but they’re here, they are here. They’re vacationing. There has not been a boycott of Florida.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/puck-around-find-out-florida-and-canada-are-on-a-trade-war-collision-course/ar-AA1AWBRd
I think it’s adorable how they think anyone will notice their boycott. They can winter in Havana or some narco-state for all I care.
“foregoing Florida orange juice altogether.”
Have some pine cone juice instead.
Five years ago, the globalists & their Democrat-Bolshevik accessories unleashed the scamdemic and a level of totalitarian creepiness and scientific fraud never before witnessed in America. Pause in memory of the countless dead and injured from the “vaccine” and the elderly who slipped away without the comfort of their loved ones. Never forgive, never forget.
https://x.com/zerohedge/status/1900750082368209030
How much government travel is truly necessary? How much is spent yearly by FedGov bureaucrats flying to conferences that produce nothing of value?
https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1900939207150903558
It’s been over six years since I traveled on my employers dime. Unless you are client facing you don’t travel.
“How much government travel is truly necessary?”
Nothing like getting paid while participating in Peyton Place.
Similar to law firm partners and associates at trial.
A deflationary crisis would be devastating for debt donkeys.
https://x.com/FinanceLancelot/status/1900736434920653155
“A deflationary crisis would be devastating for…”
…the mortgagees. Fortunately, everyone put down 20%.
since 1929
There’s a “since” you don’t want to see.
Bernanke was a scholar of the depression, and he was convinced that subprime mortgage risk “was contained.” After he was “schooled” otherwise, banker bailouts ensued.
The crater comes to Celina, TX
https://x.com/texasrunnerDFW/status/1900979427527254060
This one goes out to the mostly peaceful Soros sponsored Leftists burning the Tesla dealerships and charging stations while the Woke celebrities stamp their feet and sell their previously honored Green agenda Tesla vehicles.
https://youtu.be/qoX6AKuYWL8?si=-d18MYVRvjhtxC8S
Liberals used to buy Teslas. Now they’re bombing them
With Elon Musk becoming the focus of left-wing anger, opposition is showing signs of turning violent. But who is really behind the series of attacks?
Charlotte McDonald-Gibson
Friday March 14 2025, 1.50pm GMT, The Times
A largely peaceful protest movement against Musk’s involvement in American public life is now threatening to descend into something more violent. In recent days electric charging stations have been firebombed and Cybertrucks set ablaze. Last month one person was arrested for bringing explosives to a Tesla shop in Colorado.
https://www.thetimes.com/us/news-today/article/tesla-attacks-vandalism-boycott-elon-musk-35fv26hb5
Now they’re bombing them
Violence. It’s the leftist way. If they could, they would send us all to gulags. But for now they have to be content with committing arson during the wee hours of the morning.
Notorious FISA / Ray Epps / J6 / Tump Judge ‘Preemptively’ Blocks Admin From Deporting Alleged Tren De Aragua Members
Saturday, Mar 15, 2025 – 02:35 PM
A federal judge who’s been a critical ally to the deep state has preemptively blocked the Trump administration from deporting five Venezuelan nationals under the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) of 1978.
US District Judge James Boasberg (more on that below) issued his preemptive ruling a few hours after the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a motion on the Venezuelans’ behalf against Trump’s reported plan to invoke the AEA to accelerate the removal of illegals from the US.
The ACLU asked Boasberg to block the use of the law, though Trump has yet to invoke it. Boasberg, of course, complied, granting a restraining order Saturday morning that prevents the administration from removing the five Venezuelan nationals for two weeks so the judge can hold a hearing on their challenge.
In their filing, the ACLU, alongside Democracy Forward and the ACLU of the District of Columbia, stated that the government has moved the Venezuelans – alleged members of Tren De Aragua, to a facility in Texas, which they state are being used “as staging facilities to remove Venezuelan men under the AEA.”
Of note, the Trump administration officially declared Tren de Aragua a terrorist organization last month.
If the name Boasberg rings a bell, refresh your memory below…
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/shady-fisa-ray-epps-j6-tump-judge-preemptively-blocks-admin-deporting-alleged-tren-de
Globalists gonna globe.
Seems like just a little bit of that swamp money Elon Musk has been finding could have been used to find this place and put it out of business.
Of course that’s making the assumption that they didn’t know where it was and what they were doing.
“It’s still unclear who operated the site and for how long. Authorities suspect the notoriously violent and increasingly dominant Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) is responsible. The group is a force in illicit fentanyl, methamphetamine, extortion, logging and gasoline markets.”
Cremation Ovens, Teeth and Torture: Grisly ‘Extermination Camp’ Found In Mexico
Saturday, Mar 15, 2025 – 12:15 PM
On a quest to find loved ones who’ve gone missing in Mexico’s years-long plague of gang-driven disappearances, a group of volunteers has discovered a ghastly, bone-strewn “extermination camp” in a rural village near Guadalajara, complete with cremation ovens. Their shock was compounded by the knowledge that police first learned about the site months ago but did little to investigate it. Some witnesses say the site was used to hold men who were abducted with the intent to force them into joining a criminal cartel — and to teach torture techniques.
The first of an unknown quantity of human remains have yet to be identified, but the site near the village of La Estanzuela holds at least 700 personal items, including some that appear have belonged to women and children — such as a blue summer dress, a small pink backpack and high-heel shoes, the New York Times reports. Those and other shoes may offer one of the best indications of the potential number of people killed and/or processed at the site: There are hundreds of them.
“The number of victims that presumably could have been buried there is enormous, and it resurfaced the nightmarish reminder that Mexico is plagued with mass graves,” Mexican security analyst Eduardo Guerrero told the Times, saying what’s been already uncovered is reminiscent of Nazi concentration camps.
The volunteers’ discovery of all the disturbing evidence at the small, abandoned ranch outside Mexico’s second-largest city came after tips about the site’s existence were left on a Facebook page run by a group of citizens who are searching for missing people, the Washington Post reports. Upon traveling to the site in western Mexico, they nudged the unlocked gate open, and soon found themselves gazing into a kind of hell.
People have approached the Jalisco Search Warriors to give their own personal insights into what went on the sinister site. The volunteer group’s leader, Indira Navarro, says the gang would use phony employment advertisements to lure men to a Guadalajara bus station. Gang members would meet them there and whisk them off to the extermination camp.
They said they arrived in the Guadalajara area expecting to meet their employers and were instead taken to the ranch and forced to undergo military-style training. Some people who failed or didn’t follow orders were killed, and their bodies cut up in pieces, according to the accounts. Others died of dehydration or beatings. The recruits were forced to dig the holes, then build makeshift ovens out of bricks and stones, they said. — Washington Post
Others say the curriculum at the camp included torture techniques, with failing students purportedly meeting a fate straight out of a Hollywood movie:
Ms. Navarro recounted how one young man had told her that the young recruits were at times forced to burn their victims as part of their training. If they objected to the orders of their trainers, the recruits were sometimes fed to wild animals, like lions, she said. — NYT
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/cremation-ovens-teeth-and-bones-grisly-extermination-camp-found-mexico
Trump Signs Order to Dismantle 8 Federal Agencies, Including VOA Parent Entity
President Donald Trump signed an executive order late Friday that seeks to dismantle eight federal agencies, with the latest action building on his prior directive to eliminate elements of the federal bureaucracy deemed “unnecessary.”
The president’s March 14 order directs the agencies to shut down all non-legally required functions, cut staff, and reduce statutory roles to the bare minimum required by law.
He has given agency heads seven days to report compliance to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)—or justify the continued existence of whichever functions still remain.
A White House fact sheet notes that the cuts are to “enhance accountability, reduce waste, and promote innovation.”
It further notes that cutting the eight agencies will streamline government priorities, save taxpayer dollars, and “drain the swamp.”
Trump’s order names seven agencies that are slated for elimination: the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, United States Agency for Global Media, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Institute of Museum and Library Services, United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, and the Minority Business Development Agency.
The White House fact sheet identifies an eighth entity to be wound down—the Arctic Research Commission.
The United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which runs Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia, has been in Trump’s crosshairs since his first term. With an annual budget of around $900 million that operates networks broadcasting in more than 60 languages and around 100 countries, USAGM has been a target of criticism from Trump’s allies, who argue it operates with a liberal bias.
The president has nominated Brent Bozell, a conservative media watchdog, to lead the USAGM—though his Senate confirmation is pending.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/trump-signs-order-to-dismantle-8-federal-agencies-including-voa-parent-entity-5826100
“…seven agencies that are slated for elimination…”
Each likely staffed with blue eyes. Buh bye!
blue eyes
I don’t understand your fixation with this one genetic characteristic. My husband, our son and I all have blue eyes.
The bird too.
I suspect you’re referring to Ashkenazi Jews, who originate from the region now known as Ukraine. That’s a huge rabbit hole right there.
“I suspect…”
Indeed.
‘Michael and Maud Ziegler might have thought twice about purchasing their condo in Ocean City if they’d known their fees would be projected to increase from $900 to $3,300 a quarter…One condo owner in Roland Park, who requested not to be named due to concerns about divulging his personal information, had to take out a loan to cover a $12,000 ‘special assessment’ charge that his condo required him to pay within a month and a half. That was in addition to increased monthly fees rising from $830, when he bought the condo three years ago, to $1,350 now. ‘How feasible is it for someone to be legally on the hook to contribute that?’
It was still way cheaper than renting resident, Maud and Mike.
‘A lot of Canadians that we’ve been in touch with over the last couple of days have considered simply selling their property and moving elsewhere to spend their winters just because they are concerned…‘Oh, I won’t be back next year, no…It’s just not what you do; it’s like burning your neighbor’s house down’…‘I’ve talked to folks who have tried to put their property on sale to make sure they don’t come back’
Nobody seems very concerned with yer exodus guys.
‘My neighbors have sent emails to city council members asking for some resolution. We knew it was a difficult situation, but it was impacting our property values and our quality of life’
On top of that Bryan yer shanty is probably a defect hell just waiting to sink yer sweet equity.
‘If you lose your job, you won’t be able to pay your mortgage so it doesn’t matter if the interest rates are lower’
That means Tiff can’t save you Kingsley.
Sacré bleu!
Bondi Slams ‘DC Trial Judge’ Who Blocked Trump Using Alien Enemies Act to Deport Tren de Aragua
Elizabeth Weibel
15 Mar 2025
Attorney General Pam Bondi criticized a federal judge who blocked the deportations of suspected members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) after President Donald Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act.
In a press release from the Department of Justice, Bondi issued a statement that U.S. District Judge James Boasberg had “supported” TdA “terrorists over the safety of Americans.”
“Tonight, a DC trial judge supported Tren de Aragua terrorists over the safety of Americans,” Bondi said in a statement. “TdA is represented by the ACLU. This order disregards well-established authority regarding President Trump’s power, and it puts the public and law enforcement at risk. The Department of Justice is undeterred in its efforts to work with the White House, the Department of Homeland Security, and all of our partners to stop this invasion and Make America Safe Again.”
Bondi’s statement came after Boasberg “ordered the Trump administration to immediately halt efforts to remove those Venezuelan migrants” until he decided whether the invocation of the Alien Enemies Act “was illegal” or not, according to Politico.
Boasberg noted that “any plane” containing suspected members on TdA that was planning “to take off” or that was already in the air needed “to be returned to the United States,” according to the outlet.
Politico reported that Boasberg’s order came in response to a lawsuit that was “brought on behalf of five named Venezuelan immigrants.”
The lawsuit, brought on behalf of five named Venezuelan immigrants, was provisionally turned into a class action — meaning it serves as a block on deportation of all non-citizens in U.S. custody who are subject to Trump’s proclamation invoking the rarely-used law.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/03/15/bondi-slams-dc-trial-judge-who-blocked-trump-using-alien-enemies-act-to-deport-tren-de-aragua/
In a press release from the Department of Justice, Bondi issued a statement that U.S. District Judge James Boasberg had “supported” TdA “terrorists over the safety of Americans.”
More interference from you know who?