(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Outgoing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is reportedly weighing a plot to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson before leaving office, according to a report from a liberal news outlet.
Three anonymous sources told MS Now (formerly MSNBC) on Friday that Greene has been surveying colleagues to determine whether there is enough appetite to remove Johnson through a motion to vacate the chair.
Nine Republicans would be required to trigger such a motion, a much higher threshold than the single vote required during the last Congress, which resulted in the ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
According to MS Now, most Republicans have dismissed the idea of threatening Johnson’s leadership.
Greene denied the report, calling the claim “not true,” adding, “I’m not interested in participating in your story.”
Despite this, MS Now published a quote from one of the anonymous sources, saying, “Marjorie is approaching members to get to nine who will oust the speaker. And if we don’t get to work on codifying Trump’s agenda, anything can happen.”
The report comes as Greene has publicly rebuked Johnson in recent interviews with legacy media outlets following her turn against President Donald Trump.
“You’re seeing Republican women lash out directly at the speaker because he sidelines us and doesn’t take us seriously,” Green told CNN.
Other Republicans have also criticized Johnson, with Rep. Elise Stefanik tellingThe Wall Street Journal, “I believe that the majority of Republicans would vote for new leadership. It’s that widespread.”
(Dave Mason, The Center Square) Democratic attorneys general from California and 18 other states sued the Trump administration Friday over its new $100,000 fee on H-1B visas.
President Donald Trump imposed the rule Sept. 19 for new petitions for the nonimmigrant visas, which allow U.S. employers to hire temporary, foreign workers in response to labor shortages among physicians, surgeons, researchers, educators, nurses and other vital workers.
The new fee will make it more difficult for health care centers, schools, universities and others to hire workers, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said during a news conference Friday morning in San Francisco. He said it will make current labor shortages worse.
Bonta and Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell are co-leading the coalition of states in the suit, which is California’s 49th one this year against the Trump administration.
Bonta said the new fee violates the U.S. Constitution and the Administrative Procedures Act’s notice-and-comment process.
The Center Square Friday reached out to the White House, which commented on the lawsuit.
“President Trump promised to put American workers first, and his commonsense action on H-1B visas does just that by discouraging companies from spamming the system and driving down American wages, while providing certainty to employers who need to bring the best talent from overseas,” White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told The Center Square in an email. “The Administration’s actions are lawful and are a necessary, initial, incremental step towards necessary reforms to the H-1B program.”
The Center Square also reached out to the U.S. departments of Homeland Security and Labor, but did not hear back before press time.
Bonta noted the visas allow employers such as schools, hospitals, universities and research institutions to hire highly skilled workers.
“California, like every other state, needs more teachers, more nurses, more doctors,” the California attorney general said. “There is a shortage of supply in those professions.”
Bonta’s office said employers filing H-1B petitions typically pay between $960 and $7,595 in regulatory and statutory fees.
Bonta said the $100,000 far exceeds processing costs and call the new fee an “unnecessary obstacle” to hiring the workers America needs.
“The consequences for California would be devastating,” Bonta said. “We’re already facing a nationwide teacher shortage. Last year 74% of U.S. school districts struggled to fill open positions, especially in areas such as special education, foreign language and STEM [science, technology, engineering and math] fields. Nearly 30,000 educators nationwide hold H-1B visas.
“And hundreds of colleges and universities rely on them to support instruction and support research,” he said.
“Public schools, many of which operate on very tight budgets, can’t absorb an extra $100,000 for hire,” Bonta said.
“The health care sector is equally at risk,” he said, noting rural communities would be especially hit by the loss of workers. He said patients would see “longer wait times, reduced access to care, growing health disparities.”
Bonta said Congress didn’t authorize Trump to impose the new $100,000 fee.
“No presidential administration can rewrite immigration law,” the attorney general said. “No president can destabilize our schools, our hospitals, our universities on a whim. And no president can ignore the co-equal branch of government, the Congress; the Constitution or ignore the law.”
Besides California, states filing the lawsuit are Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.
In other litigation news, Democratic attorneys general praised this week’s federal ruling that blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to close a Federal Emergency Management Agency program designed to protect communities from natural disasters before they strike.
Democrats won their suit to protect FEMA’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program. Those filing the suit included attorneys general from Arizona and California.
“We’re winning case after case as we protect Arizonans from harm and rising prices that the Trump administration continues to illegally pursue,” Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said in a news release. “Arizonans will notice this victory the next time a wildfire or flood hits – thanks to the work of those in my office, our state will be prepared.”
“Yes, we did get support from the United States’ government,” Machado said at a press conference in Oslo, according to NBC News. “I cannot give details, because these are people that could be harmed.”
According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, Machado traveled to Venezuela’s coast in disguise and boarded a small wooden fishing skiff to reach Curaçao, a Dutch Caribbean island about 40 miles off Venezuela’s coast.
The group that helped her leave the country informed the US military about the operation, so the boat wouldn’t be blown up by a US airstrike, as the US has been bombing small boats in the region that it alleges are carrying drugs.
“We coordinated that she was going to leave by a specific area so that they would not blow up the boat,” a person involved in the operation told the Journal. The report said that she arrived in Curaçao around 3 pm on Tuesday and was “met by a private contractor who specialized in extractions and was supplied by the Trump administration.”
From Curaçao, Machado boarded a private jet that was provided by a “Miami associate” and stopped in Bangor, Maine, before flying to Norway. During her press conference, Machado was pressed several times about whether she would support a US invasion of Venezuela.
“People talk about invasion in Venezuela, the threat of an invasion in Venezuela. And I answer, Venezuela was has been already invaded,” she said in response. “We have the Russian agents, we have the Iranian agents, we have terrorist groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas, operating freely in accordance with the regime.”
Machado said that Venezuela had become a “criminal hub” of the Americas and that she asked the “international community to cut those forces.”
In a previous interview, Machado was asked if she supported the idea of the US bombing Venezuela and said that she believes US “escalation” is the only way to force Maduro out. She also supports President Trump’s bombing campaign against alleged drug boats in the region, which amounts to extrajudicial executions at sea.
The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry said the US military operation was “blatant theft and an act of international piracy, publicly announced by the President of the US, who confessed to the assault on an oil tanker in the Caribbean Sea.”
When announcing its sanctions on Thursday, which also targeted three nephews of Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, the Treasury Department also “identified” six tankers it said were moving Venezuelan oil, signaling the vessels may be targeted for seizure.
US officials told Reuters that the US plans to target more tankers in the coming weeks, and shipping sources told the outlet that many ship owners and operators involved in moving Venezuelan oil are reconsidering whether to depart Venezuela as planned in the coming days.
President Trump has said that the US will likely “keep” the Venezuelan oil that it seized.
During the first Trump administration, the US stole shipments of Iranian gas that were bound for Venezuela by coercing shipping companies through threats of sanctions to bring the cargo to the US, where it was sold off.
The seizure of Venezuelan oil by military force marks an escalation of the US enforcement of sanctions on both Venezuela and Cuba, which have had a devastating impact on civilians in the two countries and have done nothing to change the governments in either country.
The US has continued its military buildup in the Caribbean and has made frequent military flights near the coast of Venezuela. A day before the tanker was seized, two US Navy F/A-18 fighter jets flew deep inside the Gulf of Venezuela.
(Mike Maharrey, Money Metals News Service) I ran across a story about a gold and silver theft the other day.
It contains some valuable lessons.
And it also raises a few questions.
Let me just warn you up front: this story is rated PG-13.
Now, you’re probably thinking: what can be so unusual about somebody stealing precious metals? It happens a lot. Gold and silver are ideally suited for theft. They are valuable. They are portable. And they are easy to sell because pretty much everybody would like to have some gold and silver. Its value is recognized virtually everywhere in the world.
But trust me. This story is – different.
According to the Yakima Herald-Republic, the story begins with a 75-year-old woman who needed a handyman to install new locks on her home. She found one in a 59-year-old man who was not identified by the paper because formal charges had yet to be filed. We’re going to call the man John. The reason for this name will become clear in a moment.
John installed the aforementioned locks. Apparently, he did a pretty darn good job because, according to the Herald-Republic, the woman paid him with “sex and food.”
I’m sure there are plenty of dudes reading this thinking, “Yeah, I’d take that deal.”
This is where the story gets a little convoluted in my mind. The woman told police the man was her boyfriend. I don’t get it. You don’t usually “hire” your boyfriend to do handyman work. But that’s how the Herald Republic described things.
“Yakima police said a handyman stole gold and silver coins from a woman with whom he was trading work for sex.”
You would think the report would read, “A woman’s boyfriend stole gold and silver coins,” if he were, in fact, her beau. But it doesn’t. I guess we’ll have to roll with it.
Regardless, our intrepid handyman apparently wasn’t impressed with sex and food as payment for his services.
He wanted more!
According to the report, John had keys to the woman’s house and a gate opener. He allegedly stole 10 1-ounce gold coins. That would be worth over $43,000 at today’s gold price. He also absconded with 500 silver coins worth an estimated $20,000, along with a couple of guns and some jewelry.
I pause here to offer you a bit of unsolicited advice: don’t give the handyman keys to your house, especially if you have over $60,000 in gold and silver accessible for the taking. And maybe don’t give your boyfriend keys either.
I also need to comment on the woman’s security measures.
There weren’t any.
Based on an affidavit, John was staying with his daughter and bragged about the theft. (To all of you aspiring thieves out there, you might not want to tell people about your crimes.) He even showed his son-in-law a mug partially filled with gold coins. According to the report, “He described removing silver coins from a sealed container, replacing them with loose change so it would weigh the same and resealing the container.”
Now, if I were going to store thousands of dollars of precious metals in my house, I would get a safe. I might even hide the safe. I might even consider storing my valuable precious metals in Money Metals’ state-of-the-art bullion depository.
What I wouldn’t do is leave $20,000 worth of silver in a “container!”
If you do, you might just discover your boyfriend, or should I say your John, might pilfer it.
Police arrested John on Dec. 2 as he was pulling into the woman’s driveway. Authorities say pawn shop records reveal John had already sold a large number of the stolen coins. Police booked him into the Yakima County jail on suspicion of theft and trafficking in stolen property.
As for the woman, she is probably out of luck. The pawn shop owner told police he had already sold the coins. She’s also out of one boyfriend and is going to need to find a new handyman to “change her locks.”
Mike Maharrey is a journalist and market analyst for Money Metals with over a decade of experience in precious metals. He holds a BS in accounting from the University of Kentucky and a BA in journalism from the University of South Florida.
(Mike Maharrey, Money Metals News Service) As the Federal Reserve revs up the money-creating machine even higher, the money supply is already growing at the fastest rate since July 2022, in the early stages of the tightening cycle.
After peaking in April 2022, the money supply began to decline as the Fed hiked rates that year. The money supply bottomed in October 2023 and began increasing again. The money supply is now well above the pandemic peak.
And money creation has accelerated over the last several months.
Based on the “true,” or Rothbard-Salerno, money supply measure (TMS), the money supply grew at 4.76 percent year-on-year. That was up from the September increase of 4.06 percent. Money supply growth was also up significantly compared to October of last year, when year-over-year growth was 1.27 percent.
August, September, and October all posted some of the largest month-on-month growth rates we’ve seen since 2022, rising 1.18 percent, 1.4 percent, and 1.14 percent, respectively.
Economists Murray Rothbard and Joseph Salerno developed the TMS metric to provide a more accurate measure of money supply fluctuations.
Money supply growth as measured by the Fed’s M2 metric is surging even faster. Year-over-year, it grew by 4.63 percent in October, up from 4.47 percent in September.
M2 is now at the highest level it’s ever been, at nearly $22.3 trillion. TMS hasn’t returned to its 2022 peak but is running at a 34-month high.
Looking at the bigger picture, the central bank has expanded the money supply at an exponential rate since the 2008 financial crisis.
Based on the TMS metric, the money supply has grown by over 200 percent since 2009. Looking at it another way, more than 2/3 of the current money supply has been created since the financial crisis.
That’s a lot of money creation – i.e., inflation – in a short period of time!
The Money Printer Is Humming Again
The fact that money supply growth has ramped up since the Fed began cutting interest rates underscores an important point. The central bank doesn’t have to create money through quantitative easing to increase the money supply. Artificially low rates are inflationary in a fractional reserve banking system.
And at the December meeting, the Federal Reserve announced a pivot back to money printing with a return to QE operations beginning this week.
According to Fed officials, the central bank will purchase $40 million in Treasury Bills on Friday (Bills are short-term Treasuries that mature in one year or less). From that point, purchases will “remain elevated for a few months” before they are “significantly reduced.”
Of course, you will not hear any central banker or mainstream pundit utter the words “quantitative easing.”
In fact, if pushed, they’ll almost certainly deny that they’re doing it. They’ll call it “reserve management,” or tell you they’re engaged in “technical operations” to keep the financial system’s plumbing moving.
However, an expansion of reserves is an expansion of reserves, whether you call it quantitative easing or not.
In practice, the Fed plans to start buying Treasury bills with money created out of thin air. This will increase the money supply and put downward pressure on Treasury rates. The balance sheet will grow; liquidity will increase; risk asset bubbles will get more air. This is exactly what QE does. So, call it what you want. The effect is the same as QE.
It creates inflation.
Fed chairman Jerome Powell claims that monetary policy is close to neutral, but it is clearly loose. In fact, based on the Chicago Fed National Financial Conditions Index, monetary policy has been historically loose throughout the tightening cycle in 2022/2023.
This Is Inflation
While inflation watchers focus almost exclusively on price measures such as the CPI, an expanding money supply drives price inflation. In fact, inflation used to be defined as an increase in the amount of money and credit in the economy, or more succinctly, an expansion in the money supply.
Economist Ludwig von Mises defined it this way in his essay “Inflation: An Unworkable Fiscal Policy“:
“Inflation, as this term was always used everywhere and especially in this country, means increasing the quantity of money and bank notes in circulation and the quantity of bank deposits subject to check.”
Henry Hazlitt is best known for his brilliant book Economics in One Lesson. In another essay titled “Inflation in One Page,” he explained why using a more precise definition of inflation is crucial.
“Inflation is an increase in the quantity of money and credit. Its chief consequence is soaring prices.
“Therefore inflation—if we misuse the term to mean the rising prices themselves—is caused solely by printing more money. For this the government’s monetary policies are entirely responsible. (Emphasis added)”
This confusion of terms is precisely why so many people believe inflation is a thing of the past. They are only looking at one symptom of inflation (rising prices), completely ignoring the inflation pumping into the system as you read this.
Here’s the rub: those calling for even lower rates aren’t necessarily wrong. The U.S. economy is addicted to easy money. It is loaded up with debt and simply can’t function in a normal interest rate environment over the long term. Higher interest rates don’t play well with the massive Debt Black Hole.
A higher interest rate environment will eventually crack the debt-riddled economy and pop the bubbles. The economy needs its easy money drug.
As I’ve been saying for months, the Federal Reserve is in a Catch-22. It simultaneously needs to cut rates to prop up the easy money-addicted economy and hold rates steady (or even raise them) to keep inflation at bay.
That’s not going to happen. Even as the central bankers at the Fed try to talk down the likelihood of further interest rate cuts, they are actively loosening monetary policy at every meeting. That means that no matter what Powell & Company say, you need to brace yourself for more inflation.
Mike Maharrey is a journalist and market analyst for Money Metals with over a decade of experience in precious metals. He holds a BS in accounting from the University of Kentucky and a BA in journalism from the University of South Florida.
(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Maryland Democrat Gov. Wes Moore, a top contender for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination, is facing renewed scrutiny over his academic credentials, this time pertaining to claims he was a doctoral candidate.
A new investigation from the Washington Free Beacon suggests Moore likely exaggerated or misrepresented his studies at Oxford University, where he only received a master’s degree.
The report, published Thursday, noted that Moore declared himself a “foremost expert” on radical Islam based on doctoral studies at Oxford, a characterization he used to bolster his 2006 application for a prestigious and highly competitive White House fellowship. At the time, Moore, who was admitted to the White House to work for then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, was 27.
However, the Free Beacon found no evidence or registrar records showing Moore was ever a doctoral candidate at Oxford. Moore claimed in his White House application that the doctoral studies began in 2006, but an attached resume lists June 2004 as the actual date.
When asked for clarification, Moore’s office submitted a “degree confirmation” stating he was awarded a “Master of Letters in International Relations,” not a PhD.
The certificate states Moore began the program on Oct. 1, 2001, and completed it on Nov. 3, 2005—conflicting with the 2004 PhD date listed in his resume.
Additional discrepancies involve the thesis title, which itself is missing from Oxford databases. Moore’s resume lists it as The Rise and Ramifications of Radical Islam in the Western Hemisphere, while the certificate calls it Radical Islam in Latin America in the late 20th Century and its Middle Eastern Roots.
The revised title broadens the scope of his study and, by removing the date, makes it appear more directly relevant to 21st-century radical Islam, the outlet noted.
Worse, the Bodleian Library at Oxford has no record of Moore’s thesis because, according to an official, he never submitted it.
“I can see on his record that he has not submitted his thesis to the Bodleian, so they wouldn’t have a record of it,” Oxford deputy communications chief Julia Paolitto said. “MLitt students are required to submit their thesis to the Bodleian in order to confer their degree at a ceremony, however as Mr. Moore has never had a ceremony this is not a requirement he would have needed to fulfil.”
Oxford’s comments contradict Moore spokesperson Ammar Moussa, who claimed that “any insinuation” that did not submit the thesis “is a desperate attempt by a partisan outlet to launder baseless opposition research into a ‘story.’”
Moussa also accused the Free Beacon of “doing what they always do: manufacturing doubt about the accomplishments of a Black veteran, Rhodes Scholar, and public servant because it fits their narrative.”
The report comes a year after Moore faced damning scrutiny over prior claims. In the same White House application, he asserted he had received a Bronze Star for his service in Afghanistan, an award he did not actually receive until two decades later.
He also claimed to have received the Maryland College Football Hall of Fame award, which does not exist. Moore apologized for both claims in 2024.
“I made an honest mistake by including something because my commanding officer thought it was a good idea,” Moore claimed in 2024. “He thought that I earned it and he was already going through the paperwork to process it.”
According to the DOJ, Tashella Sheri Amore Dickerson, executive director of Black Lives Matter’s Oklahoma City chapter, embezzled several million dollars in donations originally intended to post bail for individuals arrested during the 2020 George Floyd protests.
Prosecutors said Thursday she misappropriated $3.15 million of the $5.6 million raised from grants and national bail funds, including money from the controversial Minnesota Freedom Fund, which has released accused murderers and child sex offenders.
The indictment alleges that Dickerson deposited returned bail checks into her personal account instead of BLM OKC’s official bank accounts
She reportedly used the money for Caribbean vacations to Jamaica and the Dominican Republic, tens of thousands of dollars in retail shopping and at least $50,000 in grocery and food deliveries for herself and her children.
Dickerson is also accused of purchasing a personal vehicle and acquiring at least six rental properties in Oklahoma City, either in her name or through an LLC she controlled, called Equity International LLC.
If convicted, she faces up to 20 years in federal prison and $250,000 in fines for each count of wire fraud. She could face an additional 10 years in prison and $250,000, or twice the value of any “criminally derived property involved in the transaction.”
Dickerson is the latest BLM figure to face federal charges.
Sir Maejor Page was sentenced to 24 months in federal prison for defrauding the Black Lives Matter of Greater Atlanta out of $450,000.
Monica Cannon-Grant, former CEO of Violence in Boston, pleaded guilty to multiple fraud-related charges tied to her nonprofit.
Similarly, Xahra Saleem, a UK activist, was jailed for misusing $30,000 intended for BLM UK.
Noem’s assertion, which came during her testimony to the House Homeland Security Committee, provided the Republican administration’s most thorough assessment so far of why it took control of the vessel on Wednesday. Incredibly unusual, the use of U.S. forces to seize a merchant ship was the latest step in the administration’s pressure campaign on Maduro, who has been charged with narcoterrorism in the United States.
Asked to delineate the U.S. Coast Guard’s role in the effort, Noem called the tanker seizure “a successful operation directed by the president to ensure that we’re pushing back on a regime that is systematically covering and flooding our country with deadly drugs and killing our next generation of Americans.”
Noem went on lay out the ”lethal doses of cocaine” she said had been kept from entering the U.S. as a result.
On Wednesday at the White House, Trump told reporters that the tanker “was seized for a very good reason.” Asked what would happen to the oil aboard the tanker, Trump said, “Well, we keep it, I guess.”
The U.S. has built up the largest military presence in the region in decades and launched a series of deadly strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean, a campaign that is facing growing scrutiny from Congress.
Trump, who has said land attacks are coming soon but has not offered more details, has broadly justified the moves as necessary to stem the flow of fentanyl and other illegal drugs into the U.S.
Venezuela’s government said in a statement that the tanker seizure “constitutes a blatant theft and an act of international piracy.” Maduro has insisted the real purpose of the U.S. military operations is to force him from office.
(Headline USA) Mike Lindell, the fervent supporter of President Donald Trump known to TV viewers as the “MyPillow Guy,” officially entered the race for Minnesota governor Thursday in hopes of winning the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic Gov. Tim Walz in 2026.
Lindell made the announcement at a news conference at his MyPillow factory in the Minneapolis suburb of Shakopee that he streamed live on his Lindell TV conservative news platform. He said his political opponents had tried to shut him and his company down because of his support for Trump’s claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
“Well, it didn’t work. I’m still standing. MyPillow is still standing,” Lindell said. “And now I want you to know that I will stand for you as governor of the state of Minnesota.”
He went straight from his announcement into a live interview with another Trump ally, conservative strategist Steve Bannon, on his “War Room” podcast.
The energetic Lindell then took the interview with Bannon outside, where his new red-white-and-blue bus was running. He said he intends to take his campaign to every town in Minnesota.
Afterward, Lindell told reporters that he told Trump back in August he was considering running for governor. But he declined to predict whether he will get the president’s endorsement, which could carry a lot of weight with the grassroots Republicans who will attend the state party’s convention next year. He also acknowledged that he gets advice from Trump’s former personal lawyer and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, who has a show on Lindell TV.
Lindell, 64, founded his pillow company in Minnesota in 2009 and became its public face through infomercials that became ubiquitous on late-night television. But he and his company faced a string of legal and financial setbacks after he became a leading amplifier of Trump’s claims that he really won the 2020 election. He said he has overcome them.
“Not only have I built businesses, you look at problem solution,” Lindell said in an interview with The Associated Press ahead of his announcement, in his trademark rapid-fire style. “I was able to make it through the biggest attack on a company, and a person, probably other than Donald Trump, in the history of our media … lawfare and everything.”
Lindell said he has a record of solving problems and personal experiences that will help businesses and fight addiction and homelessness as well as fraud in government programs. The fraud issue has particularly dogged Walz, the 2024 Democratic Party vice presidential candidate, who announced in September that he’s seeking a third term.
While no Republican has won statewide office in Minnesota since 2006, the state’s voters have a history of making unconventional choices. They shocked the world by electing former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura as governor in 1998. And they picked a veteran TV pitchman in 1978 when they elected home improvement company owner Rudy Boschwitz as a U.S. senator.
Lindell told the AP his crusade against electronic voting machines will just be part of his platform. While Minnesota uses paper ballots, it also uses electronic tabulators to count them. Lindell wants them hand-counted, even though many election officials say machine counting is more accurate.
