Previously posted on my Facebook Page.
ABC: “Trump administration is accused of fast-tracking migrant children's asylum cases.” Immigrant and child advocacy groups filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland accusing the Trump administration of “fast-tracking removal and asylum cases” for unaccompanied migrant children. Okay, let’s discuss this.
First off, the U.S. receives the highest number of individual asylum applications globally, where children under 18 make up approximately 41 percent of refugees and people “needing” international protection. Within the EU, Germany and Spain lead in receiving the highest numbers of minor and first-time young asylum applicants (over 30 percent of these migrants are minors.) Referring as well to the recent major migration crisis centered in Ceuta, alongside a surge in arrivals in the Balearic Islands, which are both Spanish enclaves.
Why so many (mostly unaccompanied) children? Let’s read up on how Mexican drug cartels exploit unaccompanied minor migrants through human smuggling networks, debt bondage, forced labor, and drug trafficking.
Facts: <>Cartels control border territories and use children as decoys or leverage softer U.S. processing rules for unaccompanied alien children (UACs) compared to single adults. <>Minors and their families incur massive debts during the journey north. Cartels use this financial leverage to force minors into labor, such as landscaping or agricultural work, to pay off the debt. <>Cartels coerce or recruit minors to carry or transport narcotics and contraband across the border or into the U.S. interior. <>Cartels have coached adult migrants to pose as unaccompanied minors by providing fake, altered, or stolen birth certificates to bypass standard adult removal processes.
Of course, you may dispute those facts, per your side of the (political) debate. But those facts are ignored, nevertheless. When Mr Trump returned to the White House last year, the backlog in asylum applications that involved unaccompanied minor cases was at 123,320. That is a modest number, I say. It could be more, since a record number of unlawful border crossings happened from 2021 to 2024. The total active immigration court backlog across all populations pre-2025, was over 3 million; more than 2 million applied for asylum.
Meanwhile, per Time: “60 million children now have 'Trump Accounts,' but parents must make a claim to get funds.” Trump Accounts are government-backed, tax-advantaged investment accounts established for U.S. children under 18, managed via the Trump Accounts Portal. But you know how complex or difficult it is to get those. But per unaccompanied migrant funding claims? You may Google numbers. But I digress. (Photo: CNN.) 🗽🏃♀️🏃
Washington Post: “Secret documents reveal donors behind $330 million for Trump's ballroom.” Historically speaking, and per political science no-brainer, if we type up all the private donors (usual suspects and shady individuals) to a government project, our brain cells would “explode” in utter wwww-what?!? LOL! Quid pro quo. Those who are not familiar with the term may google it.
A prominent example, per foreign relations: USAID. The aid is primarily handed out not necessarily as a "dole out" or friend-to-friend gift. The usual exchange: The receiving country (ally) gets to okay bilateral deals that benefit the giver. Prominent giver via foreign aid? Corporations with interest in the nation's natural resources are priorities in economic deals or negotiations. (Plus of course government officials from the recipient country pocket some of the dough. Classic corruption. Refer to my country, for example. Koraps! LOL!)
Per Trump's ballroom? Donors. Let it go, guys! Here: Blue gets the most PAC dough from rich donors since, at least, Obama days. Google who are behind that money. Joe Biden broke the PAC funding record in 2020, over $1 billion. But hey this is hate-Trump years and midterms election is next month, or weeks away. Crunch time. So you know. 🏛🗽🏛
AFP: “China responds to Trump press secretary's comments about the country's toilets.” Let me ignore the China/toilet tabloid stuff, okay? (No time for that.) But yes, newly appointed White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia is now getting a lot of (Left-wing induced) heat. Expected, I guess. For one, she looks like more of a commercial product “influencer” or side-court WNBA interviewer than a lawyer that she claims to be. But hey am I stereotyping stuff? Sorry. You see, my daughter is a corporate lawyer but she looks more of a (military) drill sergeant to me. LOL!
Anyhow, Ms Zacharia, who succeeded Karoline Leavitt, built a career in media and corporate communications, most recently serving as a senior communications adviser for Trump Media & Technology Group. According to AI Mode, Katie completed both her undergraduate and legal education at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. Etc etcetera.
But then, why fuss over her education or alleged Law degree? Let her work and show if she deserves the designation. Of course, she is being mocked because her Boss is you-know, the most (partisan media-) vilified POTUS in history. Has Jimmy and Jon or SNL insulted her yet?
Meanwhile, per CBS: “Kristi Noem loses another Trump administration title months after DHS ouster." From Secretary of Homeland Security, Ms Noem was appointed as a senior adviser to Deputy Sec Christopher Landau at the U.S. State Department. I guess she “messed up” again. I never liked her from the get-go upon her Cabinet appointment, anyways. Maybe I was affected by her open admittance of shooting a dog, I don’t know. But I didn’t like her yet, as I said, upon POTUS appointments in early 2025, I gave them the benefit of the doubt. Although I didn’t thumb-up Kristi and Pete Hegseth. 🏛🗽🏛
USA Today: “The 'Costco effect' is changing how some Americans search for homes.” Really. First off, if my other co-Asheville residents don’t know it yet, Costco is moving in. The tentative opening date: Spring 2028. So much for “no franchises,” I guess. My liberal/progressive friends in this (once) quietly joyful mountain city concur with this new U.S. retail biggie presence here, as though we are lacking in consumerism structures (for a relatively “lesser” population).
Secondly, this is obviously a marketing pitch. Already, Costco is the 3rd largest U.S. retailer by total revenue, behind Walmart and Amazon. But the giant still wants to add to the “Forbes 500 contamination” and “eradication” of local, tiny stores in small towns, eh?
Meanwhile, what really is the "Costco effect," we ask? Supposedly, it is a real estate trend where home buyers and renters actively prioritize living within a few minutes of a Costco warehouse, treating proximity to the bulk retailer as a primary lifestyle amenity.
Of course, white consumers make up the largest overall share of U.S. shoppers. But Asian American shoppers have the highest affinity or representation relative to their general U.S. population size (per Costco, specifically). And most Asians (and Hispanic/Latino) would rather walk to or drive a short distance to a store. We are not culturally-conditioned to drive long in our own community. But Asians make up only approximately 1.3 percent of Asheville’s total population, compared to the Hispanic/Latino population, 7.1 percent. But their “unaccounted” numbers are huge. Roughly half of the Hispanic/Latino population (around 20,000) in Western North Carolina is undocumented.
So Costco in Asheville is a no-brainer. Business. I get it. 🏠🛖🏘️
Yahoo: “Trump says execution of Fort Hood shooter will not be livestreamed to the public.” I definitely thumb-up Mr Trump’s “turnaround” on certain issues when the public voice demands it. So to those who relish tossing the word “dictatorship” on The D’s way, that POTUS move is hardly a dictator’s tact. And I experienced a dictatorial regime for most of my younger years.
Meanwhile, I am almost sure, this “televised public execution” drama is War secretary Pete Hegseth’s idea. Fire him now, Mr President, please! As a boy, I saw on national TV two public executions (by law) and those traumatized me. But I must repeat, I am selective on capital punishment. Some vicious criminals need to go, for good. It is for their own “liberation” and safety of the unsuspecting public (if they are paroled). Plus I wouldn’t want taxpayer money to pay for the housing and food of these evil personages. ☮️🗽☮️
