A Manufacturing Bump
U.S. manufacturing activity unexpectedly expanded in January at the fastest pace since 2022, energized by solid growth from customers’ orders and production. The Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing index rose to 52.6 from 47.9, according to data released in early February. Readings greater than 50 indicate expansion, and the latest figure topped all projections according to Bloomberg News. Following nearly a year of contraction, the demand-related spike in factory activity is welcome news. Sustained growth would help provide reassurance that manufacturing is on the mend after languishing for the past three years and more.
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Not Good News
Now for the bad news on the U.S. economy. U.S.-based employers announced 108,435 job cuts in January, a threefold increase from layoff announcements in December and more than double what was tallied in January 2025, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas’ latest monthly report.
Mostly Not “the Worst”
CBS News is reporting that an internal Homeland Security Department memo shows that only about 14% of the nearly 400,000 individuals arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in President Donald Trump’s first year back in power had violent criminal records.
Free Seamus
Seamus Culleton of Ireland’s County Kilkenny has lived in the United States for nearly 20 years. He has no criminal record and is married to an American citizen. He even has an up-to-date work visa. That’s why it makes no sense why Culleton was arrested by U.S. immigration officials last summer when he was driving home from work and then left in a cell in El Paso, Texas, with hundreds of illegal immigrants. Bizarrely, Culleton is still stuck in the detention center to this day, but he was able to give an interview recently to an Irish news outlet. “The best way I could describe it is probably like a modern-day concentration camp,” he told the news agency. “It’s a bunch of temporary tents. There’s probably room for a thousand detainees in each tent. I believe there’s like five tents. I’ve been locked in the same room now for four and a half months. … I could probably count on both hands the amount of times I’ve been outside. … We get three meals a day, very, very small meals, kid-sized meals. So everybody’s hungry. Everybody’s tired. We’ve no commissary. We’ve got no options to get extra food or anything like that. The conditions here are filthy. The toilets, the showers, completely nasty, very rarely cleaned.”
MAGA Is a Lie
In a recent interview, former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) told popular conservative radio personality Kim Iversen that the “Make America Great Again” slogan is a “lie,” saying the president’s first year back in office has mostly been about paying back his wealthy supporters. “I think people are realizing it was all a lie,” she said. “It was a big lie for the people. What MAGA is really serving in this administration, who they’re serving, is their big donors. … The big, big donors that donated all the money and continue to donate to the president’s PACs and donate to the 250th anniversary and are donating to the big ballroom. It’s the foreign countries. They are running the show here. It’s the major big corporations and what is best for the world. That’s really what MAGA is. We are seeing war on behalf of Israel. We are seeing the people in Gaza—innocent people in Gaza—hundreds of thousands of them completely murdered so that they can build some new real estate development. Money can pour in and everybody can get rich there in the new Gaza.”
Bizarre, Unnecessary Attack
In a Feb. 2 post to his social media website “Truth Social,” President Donald Trump bizarrely attacked the wife of Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), accusing the conservative congressman of disloyalty and alleging that his “liberal” wife was influencing him. The problem is, Massie’s wife, Carolyn, has a long career in conservative activism and even worked for former Texas Rep. Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty. She also says she voted for Trump in all three of the past elections. Trump is reportedly angry that Massie worked with former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) to force the Justice Department to release millions of files the agency was holding on dead pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Trump has been named thousands of times in the documents along with billionaires and many other Republican and Democrat elites. Greene defended Massie, saying, “Massie votes with the president 91% of the time, but won’t vote to protect Epstein’s sick pedophile and rapists friends or send Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars to Israel’s wars or any other foreign country. The president should be more concerned with voters, who put him in office, like Thomas Massie’s wife, not super rich donors and their favorite foreign countries and business demands.”
Fake Robot Cars
A week after a Waymo robot taxi struck and injured a child near a Santa Monica, Calif. elementary school, Waymo officials have been forced to admit that humans operating out of the Philippines have to step in at times to remotely take over the supposedly automated robot taxi cabs, reports news and commentary website “Business Insider.” During a recent congressional hearing, Waymo Chief Safety Officer Mauricio Peña was grilled over the company’s use of Chinese-made vehicles and reliance on overseas workers. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) blasted the company, accusing them of destroying jobs in the United States. and lying that their cars are completely automated. “We don’t know if these people have U.S. driver’s licenses,” said Markey.
Voter ID
According to polling firm Pew, 83% of Americans are in favor of having to show photo ID to vote. This includes 70% of Democrats and Republicans, as well as 75% of Americans across races.
Ignoring Protocols
In early February, the State Department tried to bypass Congress and secretly send Israel $6.5 billion in taxpayer money and weapons. The deal included Apache attack helicopters and other combat vehicles. The foreign aid had been under review by the House Foreign Affairs Committee, but State officials chose to simply ignore standard procedure and just give all the freebies to the tiny Zionist state. The move marks the third time the Trump administration has simply ignored standard protocols and sent taxpayer aid directly to Israel.
Liberty Litmus Test
On Feb. 8, The New York Times published a lengthy article headlined, “MAGA’s Split Over Israel Extends to a Ship Attacked 58 Years Ago.” The article went on to make the debunked claim that the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty on June 8, 1967 was most likely a case of mistaken identity—it wasn’t—and then accused the entire surviving veteran crew of the Liberty of being liars and anti-Semites—they aren’t. “Conservatives are split between those who are adamant supporters of [Israel] and those critical of the Jewish state who sometimes employ openly anti-Semitic views to make their case,” wrote the Times.
Weasel Visit
Donald Trump has been president only for 12 months, yet, somehow, on Feb. 11, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu managed to weasel his way into the White House for his seventh visit with the chief executive in the last year. This time, Netanyahu seems to be begging the United States to expand nuclear weapons talks to include pushing Iran to get rid of any missiles that can hit Israel—a demand Iranian officials have already rejected. If the Iranians won’t surrender, the Israelis are pressing for the United States to attack Iran for a second time. Hopefully, Trump resists the pressure. The Iranians have already said they will not hold back if the United States bombs them again.
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