Ditch Trump

They moved to Oklahoma City (OKC) from Maryland for more affordability and a slower pace of life, The father stayed in Maryland tying up loose ends you have when you move your entire family of 5, thousands of miles away.

The woman, KFOR calls “Marisa,” and her 3 daughters were sleeping when their home was raided by 20 well armed men.

Marisa said the men identified themselves as federal agents with the U.S. Marshals, ICE, and the FBI.

The armed men said they had a search warrant, except it was for people who didn’t live there. The family had only moved to their OKC home 2 weeks ago.

She said they ordered her and her daughters outside into the rain before they could even put on clothes.

“They wanted me to change in front of all of them, in between all of them,” she said. “My husband has not even seen my daughter in her undergarments—her own dad, because it’s respectful. You have her out there, a minor, in her underwear.”

They are citizens of the USA

“I told them before they left, I said you took my phone. We have no money. I just moved here,” she said. “I have to feed my children. I’m going to need gas money. I need to be able to get around. Like, how do you just leave me like this? Like an abandoned dog.”

Before they left, Marisa said one of the agents made a comment.

“One of them said, ‘I know it was a little rough this morning,’” she said. “It was so denigrating. That you do all of this to a family, to women, your fellow citizens. And it was a little rough? You literally traumatized me and my daughters for life. We’re going to have to go get help or get over this somehow.”

Now the US Marshal’s Service and the FBI disavow any part in this, though Home Land Security/ICE has not.  But they say their looking into this.   Marisa says she has no idea which agency to approach to get their phones, electronics and cash back.

And here is what women all over the country have been saying since Rumeysa Ozturk was arrested by law enforcement without visible ID on. These agencies are creating an opportunity for individuals and gangs to claim they are from the government to harass, kidnap, invade homes, steal, possibly rape and murder.

What if one homeowner, or even Marisa herself, had used “stand your ground?” What would have happened to her for shooting an ICE agent?

What if Home Land Security/ICE disavow this too?

Only KFOR seems to be on this for the moment.

Video of the report is here

Link to article is here

The problem isn’t his own personal conduct, including an allegation of assault, nor is it his embrace of bigoted policies. The problem is not even his sloppy disclosure of war plans to people outside the military command structure. No, Hegseth knew the culprit: “the deep state.”

The former Fox News host’s invocation of the “deep state” is familiar territory for conservatives over the past few years. President Donald Trump loves talking about the so-called “deep state.” According to the Trump Twitter archive, Trump referenced the “deep state” at least 95 times in social media posts made between November 2017 and October 2024.

Trump told millions that the “deep state” had performed a “coup” against him in stealing the 2020 election, which he lost (fair and square) to Joe Biden. He has also claimed that the “deep state” was behind the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the U.S. Capitol, and that the “deep state” was behind delays at the Food and Drug Administration responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In his second presidency, Trump has signed executive orders purportedly curtailing the actions of the “deep state” by firing civil service employees within the federal government.

In addition to being invoked by Hegseth and Trump, the “deep state” boogeyman has been singled out by adherents to the QAnon conspiracy, who believe that the shadowy group is behind outlandish and ghoulish crimes like stealing children—ideas that echo old antisemitic tropes. Trump has welcomed some disgraced QAnon figures, like retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, back into the fold, giving the conspiracy a foothold within the federal government.

The right argues that the deep state is a network of operatives inside the federal government, tweaking and controlling world events for their sinister agenda, which is usually left-wing and/or communist in nature. By design, the right avoids specifics on who precisely the deep state is; it could be people as prominent as former Presidents Joe Biden or Barack Obama, or merely a grocery store clerk doing the bidding of the New World Order.

In reality, it is a catchall phrase for failure.

Recently, the mainstream right has merged with what was previously the fringe right, embodied by figures like conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. For decades, Jones and his ilk have preached to their audiences about the “deep state,” which has purportedly coordinated events like the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy, earthquakes, the 9/11 attacks, and multiple mass shootings.

Now Republicans bring up the “deep state” when they can’t get the job done. To them, when they lose elections, it isn’t because voters rejected them—no, it’s because the “deep state” manipulated voting machines and stuffed ballot boxes. To them, when Trump mishandles the response to a pandemic, it isn’t his fault for underestimating the virus or attacking safety procedures—no, it’s because of the “deep state.” And to them, when the defense secretary blabs about military maneuvers on an unsecured app, the fact that the public knows about it is the dastardly work of the “deep state.”

Conservatives refuse to take responsibility for their failures. It’s easier for them to blame the “deep state” and rile up the most diehard followers to fight an invisible force supposedly making everything so terrible.

Then the right can coast along without needing to change their behavior. After all, “the deep state” did it.

This is from the very Republican friendly Axios:

Key commodity exports plunge as Trump’s trade war bites

There is a lovely chart that Axios made of the data for the past several years for soybean sales to China.  They did a comparison to the same time period (several weeks in April) over the last four years, and from April 11th to 17th, there is a 50% plunge in soybean exports to China.  The four week average is down 25%.  Remember, Trump had “liberation day” on April 2nd.

And it’s not just soybeans.

• Net pork sales were down 72% week on week and 82% versus the four-week average, the USDA said.

I’m not a farmer, but I’d say those drops in commodity exports to China are more than “a little significant.”  Oh yeah, the article has a quote from an agricultural consultant who states that this is DIRECTLY attributed to Trump’s tariffs.

And if you are a farmer, you just have to love hearing this:

Between the lines: “This already looks worse than 2018,” American Soybean Association economist Jacquie Holland tells Axios. “That’s because there’s also a trade spat with Canada, a major supplier of potash which is a really key input for soybean production.

• “Farmers are going to feel the pain of this at so many points on the supply chain, not just from the prices that they receive.”

Wait a minute! That woman Holland works for the American Soybean Association.  Isn’t that the same group that has Caleb Ragland of KY as the president?  It sure does!

You folks may remember that Ragland is a “Yee Haw!” when it comes to Trump and his tariffs.  Yee Haws believe that Trump has their backs and won’t let farmers down!  The tariffs are all part of “The Art of The Deal!”, and Trump is going to bring home a GREAT TRADE DEAL with China!

But deep in Ragland’s heart, he is a little bit afraid that a long drawn out trade war will be bad for farmers, so he is BEGGING Trump to wind up that great trade deal soon!

I wonder if Ragland was aware that Ms. Holland was being all reality based with Axios?

Next up, we have some data from freight container bookings, and it is not looking great either.

Shipping rates are already down

Bookings of ocean freight shipments have been down significantly in the weeks since Trump’s sweeping tariffs took effect. Though on April 9, the president paused his higher tariffs on goods from many countries for 90 days, his 10% baseline tariff on all countries remains in effect, as does his 145% tariff on imported Chinese goods.

During the first week of April, following Trump’s initial April 2 tariff announcement, ocean freight container bookings saw a sharp global decline of nearly 50%, according to data from the digital logistics company, Vizion. Specifically, imports into the US fell 64% compared to the previous week, including imports from China to the US, which dropped 36%. Exports out of the US also dropped 30%, according to Vizion data.

In the following weeks, that nosedive continued in what Vizion has called a “tariff shockwave.” For the week of April 14, ocean freight container bookings showed that overall US imports declined 12% week over week, and imports to the US from China declined 22% week over week, Vizion data shows.

The article from Business Insider lays out what happens when you inject tariffs and further tariff uncertainty in a global supply chain.  Basically, if Trump keeps this shit up, store shelves are going to look a lot like they did during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Remember how hard it was to find toilet paper?  I know I sure do.

And I know it made everyone oh so happy during that pandemic.

This is real.  It’s not hypothetical.  What Trump has started is like some tsunami of economic bad tidings.  And like a tsunami, it takes time for the energy of the initial shock wave to travel through the medium of the global supply chain and imports/exports.