Zerohedge

Authored by Emily Arthun via RealClearEnergy,

A recent report from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) sounds the alarm: America’s power grid is becoming dangerously unreliable. The nation is hurtling toward a future where rolling blackouts and power shortages will be the norm rather than the exception. At the heart of this crisis is the closure of baseload coal plants, a move that is leaving our electric system vulnerable to demand surges and extreme weather events, and our people subject to skyrocketing electric bills.

NERC’s latest assessment reveals an unsettling reality: the rapid shift away from coal and other reliable baseload power sources is pushing our electric grid to the brink. More than half of the U.S. faces an elevated risk of power shortages, particularly during peak demand periods in summer and winter. The root cause? The aggressive push to retire coal-fired power plants without ensuring an adequate and reliable replacement.

While renewable energy sources like wind and solar are expanding, they are not yet capable of providing the always-available, on-demand power that coal and other baseload sources deliver. When the sun isn’t shining, and the wind isn’t blowing, grid operators must scramble to fill the gap. Too often, they are left with insufficient options, leading to potential shortfalls that can cripple homes, businesses, and critical infrastructure.

The Reliability Crisis

NERC’s findings make one thing clear: reliability is at stake. Energy demand is increasing exponentially, driven by factors such as electrification, population growth, and the rise of energy-intensive technologies like data centers. At the same time, dispatchable generation—power that can be turned on or off as needed—are disappearing.

This gap leaves the grid exposed to extreme weather events. In recent years, we have seen where coal has been there to keep our power flowing:

• Winter Storm Uri (2021): Texas experienced widespread blackouts, leaving millions without power and causing over 200 deaths. The cold temperatures experienced in Texas during Uri led to natural gas supply issues and frozen wind turbines creating an insufficient base-load of power.
• California’s Rolling Blackouts (2020): A combination of heat waves and inadequate power supply forced California to implement rolling blackouts, impacting millions.
• Christmas 2022 Outages: Severe cold across the Eastern U.S. led to power shortages as demand surged, highlighting the dangers of relying too heavily on intermittent energy sources.
• January 2024: During a cold snap MISO showed that 38,508 MW of energy from coal led the energy mix, keeping the heat on.
• January 2025: The country saw an extended cold snap and coal power production was the highest since 2019 reported LSEG.

NERC warns that immediate action needs to be taken to shore up the grid with reliable, baseload power.

Why Coal Remains Essential

Coal has long served as the backbone of America’s electric grid, providing a stable and affordable power source that can be counted on during peak demand. Unlike wind and solar, coal generation is not subject to weather variability. Unlike natural gas, coal is stored on site and in the short term is not susceptible to supply chain disruptions or price volatility.

Despite this, policymakers continue to prioritize the rapid transition away from coal, often without considering the consequences. The closure of coal plants is driven by regulatory pressures, market distortions favoring renewables, and misguided environmental policies that fail to account for the grid reliability crisis.

The loss of coal-fired generation doesn’t just threaten reliability; it also drives up electricity costs for consumers. Without coal’s stabilizing effect on the market, electricity prices become more volatile, hitting households and businesses with higher bills.

Moreover, shifting too quickly to an over-reliance on renewables requires massive investments in energy storage, transmission upgrades, and backup power sources. These costs ultimately fall on ratepayers, making electricity less affordable for millions of Americans.

To avoid a full-blown reliability crisis, we must take a balanced approach to energy policy. This means:

• Halt Premature Coal Plant Retirements: Policymakers should pause the closure of existing coal plants until replacement generation with equal reliability is available.
• Invest in Advanced Coal Technology: High-efficiency, low-emission (HELE) coal plants and carbon capture technologies can ensure coal remains a viable part of a cleaner energy future.
• Restore Market Fairness: Energy markets should recognize the value of baseload power and compensate coal plants for their role in ensuring grid stability.
• Reevaluate Renewable Integration:Renewables have a role to play, they must be integrated in a way that does not jeopardize reliable affordable power supply This means investing in firm, dispatchable power sources alongside renewables.

NERC’s report should serve as a wake-up call. The U.S. cannot afford to gamble with its electric grid. Reliable and affordable power supply is not just a convenience—it’s a necessity for economic stability, public safety, and national security. Coal has been and should continue to be a key part of our energy mix, ensuring that the American citizen has access to reliable energy , even in the toughest conditions. Policymakers must act now to protect America’s energy future before it is too late. If not, the simple fact is that lives will be needlessly endangered.

Emily Arthun is CEO at the American Coal Council.

A series of winter storms is set to traverse the central and eastern United States through mid-February, bringing a mix of snow, ice, and rain. The next big round of winter precipitation could occur as early as next week. 

Weather Channel’s Jim Cantore provided more color on the active storm pattern on X:

This pattern is locked and loaded right now. Non-stop storms will pepper the USA through mid-month and likely beyond. 

Of course the devil is always in the details, but 3 impact events are likely Monday through Sunday of next week which will carry all hazards to some extent.  Again not crippling, but impactful.

ECMWF below (out through the 18th) is locked into mean trough in the west with large-scale, Gulf moisture loving systems ejecting east.  Still looking at potential for first upper end AR (atmospheric river) for southern CA next Thursday.

Cantore’s map, showing the active storm pattern, suggests that residents in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast should be on alert for potential adverse weather conditions next week.

This pattern is locked and loaded right now. Non-stop storms will pepper the USA through mid-month and likely beyond.

Of course the devil is always in the details, but 3 impact events are likely Monday through Sunday of next week which will carry all hazards to some extent.… pic.twitter.com/zY80QG94ve

— Jim Cantore (@JimCantore) February 7, 2025

Several meteorologists on X have posted models showing the potential threat of “Snowmeggedon” in the Northeast through the midpoint of the month.

GFS 18z model update:

24″-36″ of snow expected in the next 10-days across the Northeast including NYC and Boston.

Are you not entertained?❄️ pic.twitter.com/njuldizvvt

— Ryan Maue (@RyanMaue) February 6, 2025

The theme of endless snowstorms continues on the 18z GFS…

If these models are even half correct, this will be a memorable February.

This map represents a running total out to the morning of Feb 20th and includes 6-7 different storms.

Snow lovers are going to be swimming like… pic.twitter.com/P7o8to1s4x

— Mark Margavage (@MeteoMark) February 6, 2025

Euro Snowmeggedon run for the northest, upcoming 15 days and period thru St Pattys day. Jackie Chiles sums it up pic.twitter.com/WjG47S8qSa

— The American Storm (@BigJoeBastardi) February 6, 2025

“It’s like déjà vu all over again!” Yogi Berra. Another round of Snow/Sleet and Freezing Rain (Ice) is likely again Saturday Afternoon into Saturday Night. And it still looks like the Snow Train is on track for Tuesday next week. 👇 Whew! Stay tuned… ❄️🚂 pic.twitter.com/Dg79FKzwNR

— Tony Pann (@TonyPannWBAL) February 6, 2025

On Tuesday… 

Another Polar Vortex May “Penetrate Deep” Into Lower 48 By Mid-Month https://t.co/OQkabNu6ro

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) February 4, 2025

The latest Lower 48 average temperature forecast, combined with a two-week outlook, shows that the next round of cold will be less severe than last month’s. 

Last Sunday, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, signaling six more weeks of winter. Let’s hope this extreme cold comes to an end. Meanwhile, global warming alarmists in the far-left corporate media, along with Al Gore, the Democrats, and Greta, have been unusually quiet about the cold—or perhaps their USAID ‘climate change’ funds have run dry.

Authored by Jill McLaughlin via The Epoch Times,

A recent uptick in the arrival of smuggled migrants landing on Southern California shores in fishing boats has prompted one coastal city to explore installing infrared cameras and possibly allowing the public to monitor the beaches at night.

San Clemente, home to more than 62,000 residents and located on the coast about halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego, decided unanimously Feb. 4 to ask federal immigration authorities if they want to partner with the city to install a coastal surveillance system.

Mayor Steven Knoblock discussed the idea with city councilors Tuesday and called for City Manager Andy Hall to reach out to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

While the land border crossings have dropped since President Donald Trump took office last month, the number of boats arriving on San Clemente’s shores has increased because of the city’s location just north of a federal border checkpoint on Interstate 5, according to Councilman Rick Loeffler.

“It’s very obvious why they come in there,” Loeffler said. “It seems like [federal immigration enforcement agencies] would want to have cameras here.”

The boats used—usually unlicensed pangas, which are small, outboard-powered boats often used for fishing—are frequently left behind as the people scatter into the community, Knoblock said.

“More and more people are coming up by pangas,” he said. “I think it’s important that they be identified. This is a public safety issue.”

Migrants in the boats risk drowning if the craft overturns, especially in the last 50 feet of arrival, according to the city manager.

Hall said Imperial Beach, Calif., located on the U.S. border in San Diego, had a similar surveillance program when he managed that city.

During his time there, one panga overturned and all 15 passengers drowned in waist-deep water, he said.

Knoblock floated the idea of installing three thermal imaging cameras, placed on the city pier and at north and south neighborhood locations.

He also wanted the public to be able to access the live cameras at night after the city’s lifeguards leave for the day.

“I just think it would be a good thing for our community to have and take an opportunity to keep an eye on their own backyard,” he said.

The Rip Curl WSL Finals of Lower Trestles surf spot in San Clemente, Calif., on Sept. 8, 2023. City officials are exploring the idea of installing infrared cameras for the public to watch out for nighttime Migrant boat arrivals. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

Councilman Zhen Wu said the city didn’t have the money to buy the cameras, but he approved of the idea.

If U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, has the money or the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) wanted to install cameras on city property, “I would be open to that,” Wu said.

Councilors also voted to place contact numbers on the city’s website so that people can call federal agencies if they see the boats arrive.

Some residents were concerned about giving the public access to the live camera feed, but the mayor stressed the program would operate like a neighborhood watch.

About an hour south along the San Diego County coastline, officials have reported several boats landing at area beaches to drop off smuggled immigrants in the past year.

On Jan. 25, a boat filled with migrants capsized near a San Diego beach, sending about 20 people into the sea as lifeguards and surfers rushed to rescue them.

It was the second boat found to be smuggling migrants into the county that day, according to the city.

The Border Patrol did not return a request for comment about the city’s plan.

Sanpaku-eyed lawmaker Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) was beside herself on Friday, after several Democratic lawmakers attempted to enter the Department of Education headquarters, only to be turned away by security official identified on social media as Jim Hairfield.

Dozens of Democratic representatives traveled to the DoE building in Washington DC, demanding to be allowed inside to meet with acting Education Secretary Denise Carter. Hairfield, giving zero fucks, calmly denied their request as their performative outrage grew.

Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) and 95 of his fellow partisans had demanded an “urgent meeting” Thursday with acting secretary Denise Carter before taking matters into their own hands Friday — only to be halted by security who “locked” the building doors, a congressional aide told The Post. -NY Post

Watch:

Maxine Waters (D) is currently accosting random federal employees outside the Department of Education pic.twitter.com/5L8RviQ9rH

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 7, 2025

“Get out of the way!” Waters erupted, adding “We pay for your job!“

pic.twitter.com/fBpWGK20I6

— Perfunctory (@pfunkin1) February 7, 2025

Needless to say, we’re getting sick of your shit, Karens…

President Trump has vowed to abolish the Department of Education, which was signed into legislation as a cabinet-level agency by President Jimmy Carter in 1979.

“I told Linda — ‘Linda, I hope you do a great job and put yourself out of a job,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday, referring to Education Secretary-designee, Linda McMahon. “I want her to put herself out of a job [in the] Education Department.”

Elon Musk, meanwhile, posted a meme on X in which Jimmy Carter states “In 1979, I created the Department of Education. Since then, America went from 1st to 24th in education.”

Authored by James Howard Kunstler,

“They never prepared for algorithms that could map everything. For personnel pre-positioned everywhere. For a president who counts every week like it’s his last.” 

– VP JD Vance

If you wondered since 2016 how come the blob and the Democratic Party were aligned so exquisitely in their operations to destroy populism (personified by Mr. Trump) and to permanently entrench single party power in America for all time to come, it’s because an endless font of taxpayer money was streamed into countless non-governmental orgs creating a shadow civil service of Democratic Party activists that melded seamlessly with the big policy-making agencies.

The money was laundered through manifold layers of these orgs and their sub-orgs to pay for an ongoing “color revolution” in the USA — lawfare, election fraud, propaganda, censorship, career cancellation, medical fuckery, open borders, and other totalitarian ploys — while enriching political players at all those manifold layers from multi-millionaire congressmen and senators to thousands of NGO officials making six-figure salaries to street hustlers like Patrisse Cullors of Black Lives Matter and “anti-racism” racist Ibram X. Kendi and his $50-million Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University (recently axed) — and, of course, ultimately the former Potemkin president “Joe Biden” and his family.

It was all this money that drove eight years of sponsored insanity. Mainly, it kept the hands of the Democratic Party firmly on the levers of power so that nothing could be done about the insults and injuries they were inflicting on our country. So, is it a mystery now that nobody was prosecuted for burning the cities in 2020, or for magically creating millions of extra “Joe Biden” votes out of nowhere that year, or setting up the kickback machine from Ukraine to Congress, or forcing millions to get a janky vaccine?

Pam Bondi is going to be a busy girl. 

The DOGE has uncovered a government racketeering operation of which the USAID scandal is but one cog in a colossal engine of grift. What the public, including you readers, may not appreciate is how much planning went on over the past year to mount the DOGE effort, and how comprehensively the work of its many hundreds of computer techies (not just six whiz-kids) has laid bare the money-trails out of previously impenetrable government computers. Their algorithms have pierced the firewalls, revealing decades of fraud and deceit.

Mr. Trump’s cabinet officers have started the job of dismantling the machine by getting rid of the employees who set it up and worked for it. By Thursday, Secretary of State Rubio, fired all but 300 of the 10,000 people working for USAID. CIA Director Ratcliffe offered the agency’s entire workforce a “deferred resignation” option that will allow them to bail out and still collect their salaries until September. Look for straight-up firings to ensue. Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove ordered the acting FBI director to terminate eight senior FBI officials and asked for a review of up to 5,000 involved in J-6 investigations (including, presumably, agents who engaged in abusive SWAT-team deployments).

Many lawsuits have been mounted by blob-adjacent attorneys to make all this stop. But one big problem for them is that their gigantic legal fees — hundreds of dollars an hour on the meter multiplied by x-hundreds of lawyers— were previously paid by exactly those NGOs that are getting shut down now. So, perhaps you see exactly how those levers of power worked. The money will have to come from somewhere else, and I doubt that Silicon Valley billionaire blob-supporter Reid Hoffman wants to piss away the rest of his fortune on this.

Some actual persons will have to be held accountable for all the mischief carried out in rogue agencies over many years. It has to start somewhere. I nominate Samantha Power as a first test case. She was in charge of USAID for nearly four years — until Jan 20, 2025 — including the duration of the Ukraine War. She was also personally very busy hands-on in arranging attempted color revolutions in Hungary (failed, against Viktor Orban), Georgia (failed), Mexico (failed), and Brazil (succeeded against Jair Bolsonaro). Ms. Power provided money from USAID-connected NGOs to foster instability in many more countries, including our country. It must have come as quite a shock to her that Kamala Harris did not win the 2024 election. USAID will not be paying for Ms.Power’s legal representation.

Much more will come to shock the blobsters and their legions — though just now, as the reformation of government begins, it’s comforting just to think of all those dedicated seditionists, Wokesters, Marxians, and Jacobins unable to make their rent payments or buy groceries all of a sudden. The paychecks have stopped coming for thousands who wanted to turn American life upside-down and inside-out. This happened most colorfully at the fake-news outfit called Politico this week. Turned out they were a subsidiary of the blob. Who knew? (Everyone who was paying attention to the jive they published.) Management had to send out a memo that reporters and editors would not get paid this week, or maybe ever again. Boo hoo.

It was also revealed this week that the Reuters News Agency, the Associated Press, The New York Times, the Wash-Po, and around 700-other news outfits altogether had been receiving financial support from USAID, the CIA, and other government entities. Now do you understand why the Democratic Party voters are so obdurately deluded and deranged?

Besides the perfunctory lawsuits filed against DOGE and the agency chiefs, the response to all this corrective action has been surprisingly feeble. You might conclude that they couldn’t marshal the rioters this time because the money for rioters has been cut off. Instead, you saw a motley pack of political creeps — Jamie Raskin, Ayanna Pressley, Liz Warren, Chuck Schumer, Maxine Waters, Jasmine Crockett , Ilhan Omar —crying crocodile tears outside USAID HQ at 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. They looked like roaches after the exterminator’s visit.

The reform of our gone-rogue government is barely underway, notwithstanding these mighty initial actions. Yet to come, you have the whole filthy underbelly of the public health agencies who brought you Covid-19. The terrified Democrats are holding back confirmation of Patel, Gabbard, and RFKJr, but even if they fail to get confirmed, the new administration will put capable figures in those jobs at FBI, ODNI, and HHS. The party of Chaos must know that they cannot stop the dismantling of their evil machine.

Beyond these grifts lies the Okefenokee of treason, bribery, conspiracy, and sedition deriving from RussiaGate, the impeachment of 2019, and all the shenanigans emanating out of Ukraine since the Maidan Revolution in 2014. Turns out, it was all of a piece. The same cast of characters were involved in all these nefarious events. I believe we’ll see those “Joe Biden” preemptive pardons tested in the SCOTUS. You haven’t begun to hear about the cases that AG Bondi will have to consider in that giant hairball. It’s only her second day on the job. Have mercy.

We have repeatedly warned that with their savings – and especially “emergency covid savings” – gone or nearly gone, Biden admin savings data manipulation notwithstanding…

… US consumers had no choice but to max out their credit cards in order to “extend and pretend” their moment of purchasing greatness, or as we called it two months ago, their last hurrah (see In “Last Hurrah”, Credit Card Debt Explodes Higher Despite Record High APRs As Savings Rate Craters), a hurrah that would last very briefly as it was only a matter of months if not weeks before said cards were denied.

One month later, that’s exactly what happened, when to our surprise, revolving credit cratered at the fastest pace since the covid crash, contracting a whopping $7.5 billion, an event which for a country that lives on debt – literally – is unheard of outside of a recession.

Commenting on the plunge, we said that “we don’t know what sparked this sudden reversal in the favorite American pastime – i.e., to buy stuff one can’t afford and hope to pay it back some time in the future for a modest 29.95% APR – but we know what didn’t: falling rates… because they didn’t.” We then proceeded to show that the average interest rate on credit card balances were at the second highest on record ever though the Fed had already cut rates by 100 bps.

And while it would have been normal, if not expected, for credit card balances to continue declining with savings rates near record lows and with credit card rates at record highs, trust the US economy to do precisely the opposite of what is logical and according to the latest just released consumer credit data, US consumers exited 2024 with a bang after Consumer credit soared by a record $40.8 billion in December, a complete reversal of the $5.4 billion November drop, and a month that sticks out like a sore thumb in the history of consumer credit as shown below.

The December print is all the more remarkable when considering that Wall Street consensus was for a $14.6BN consumer credit print. This means that the actual number was a 4 sigma beat to expectations, the biggest on record for this particular data series

Taking a closer look at the number, while non-revolving debt (i.e. student and auto loans) rose modestly as it always does rising by $18 billion, it was revolving, or credit card debt, that cratered soared by a whopping $22.3 billion, a remarkable reversal to the $14 billion drop in November which was the biggest drop since the covid crash shut down the economy, and the biggest monthly increase on record.

And while last month’s unexpected drop could at least have been explained with the fact that credit card APRs were at all time highs (currently 23% up almost 10% from a decade again), the fact that APRs remained there just under a record high certainly does not explain why US consumers scrambled to max out their credit cards at the end of 2024, just as their savings accounts hit the lowest level in years.

While the surge in credit card usage may explain the burst in spending to end the year, there is only so far that an economy can be pushed with maxed out credit cards.

Authored by Vince Dioquino via Decrypt.co,

A growing wave of U.S. states are pursuing legislation to establish strategic Bitcoin reserves or enable crypto investments for public funds, opening a shift in state-level fiscal policy.

Out of 50 U.S. states, 16 have ongoing legislative considerations and varying statuses.

Utah stands out as the state closest to a potential implementation.

The state’s Blockchain and Digital Innovation Amendments bill was passed and recommended on third reading by the Economic Development and Workforce Services Committee through the House, with a majority vote of 8 to 1 on January 28.

Utah’s bill would authorize the state treasurer to allocate up to 5% of certain public funds to “qualifying digital assets,” as long as they meet the main requirement of having over $500 billion in market capitalization, averaged over the past 12 months.

While the bill does not explicitly mention Bitcoin in its language, only Bitcoin categorically passes the core requirement in terms of market capitalization.

Dennis Porter, CEO of Satoshi Act Fund, pointed out this contention on X after Justin Bechler, a Bitcoin advocate, argued that Porter’s characterization of the bill was misleading due to Utah’s Money Transmitter Act.

On the Bitcoin trail

Though a total of 17 states have filed for similar proposals,North Dakota‘s proposal was notably rejected on February 4, according to data visualized by the Bitcoin Reserve Monitor.

Several other states are considering similar moves to allow Bitcoin or crypto for use in public funds.

State-level momentum continues building, with New Mexico becoming the latest entrant. Senator Anthony L. Thornton introduced the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Act (SB275) on February 4, proposing a 5% allocation of public funds to Bitcoin.

Arizona’s Senate Finance Committee has advanced similar legislation, passing SB1025 which would permit up to 10% of public funds, including pension systems, to invest in cryptocurrencies.

A bill before the Arizona state senate would encourage the state’s portfolio of retirement plans for government workers to include Bitcoin ETFs. Adoption of the digital asset is proposed in Senate Concurrent Resolution 1016, introduced by state Sens. Jake Hoffman and Warren Petersen along with Rep. Joseph Chaplik. The non-binding resolution highlights the explosive market interest in Bitcoin and Bitcoin ETFs following the approval of 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs in January, noting that the top cryptocur…

Wyoming and Massachusetts have also joined the race, with the latter opening its rainy day funds to be invested in Bitcoin or any digital asset for up to 10% of its stabilization fund.

Texas, meanwhile, has taken a different approach with dual proposals. The state has a Senate bill in the works that would allow up to 1% allocation from its general revenue fund balance.

It also has a separate House bill focused on Bitcoin donations, with provisions for crypto payment conversions to Bitcoin. So far, neither has advanced to law.

From Oklahoma and Missouri to New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, various states in the U.S. have either proposed or pending bills, with the legislative status of these bills across 16 participating states actively being tracked by Bitcoin Reserve Monitor.

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) announced Thursday that following President Trump’s executive order prohibiting biological males from competing in women’s sports it has changed its transgender athlete policy.

BREAKING: President Donald J. Trump signs an executive order keeping men OUT of women’s sports.

Promises made, promises kept. pic.twitter.com/rDfC2qmiu4

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 5, 2025

The order will remove funding from any schools that force female athletes to compete or share changing facilities with males. 

It is a massive turn around on the issue for the NCAA in just a few months.

Just a few months ago, NCAA president defended his policies allowing men in women’s sports and locker rooms.

He just announced he’s changing the policy to align with Trump’s EO. pic.twitter.com/WGFic2MWGB

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) February 6, 2025

NCAA President Charlie Baker commented “We strongly believe that clear, consistent, and uniform eligibility standards would best serve today’s student-athletes instead of a patchwork of conflicting state laws and court decisions. To that end, President Trump’s order provides a clear, national standard.”

NCAA President Charlie Baker issues statement regarding Trump administration executive order.

🔗https://t.co/8n90EjT6xl pic.twitter.com/tDRlAeOgrz

— NCAA News (@NCAA_PR) February 5, 2025

The development was celebrated by Riley Gaines, the former University of Kentucky swimmer who has fiercely campaigned for women’s rights in sports since her 2022 loss to trans-identifying male swimmer Lia Thomas.

“I can’t even begin to tell you how vindicating it feels knowing no girl will ever have to experience what my teammates and I did. Thank God Trump is back in office,” Gaines urged.

The NCAA has officially changed their ‘transgender participation’ policy effective immediately.

I can’t even begin to tell you how vindicating it feels knowing no girl will ever have to experience what my teammates and I did.

Thank God Trump is back in office. pic.twitter.com/2USfSuZ6ij

— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) February 6, 2025

Other female athletes expressed joy at the development.

Four years as an NCAA athlete begging those in charge to change their policy that jeopardized my safety and opportunity…crickets.

I cannot express to you how much this means to me. pic.twitter.com/gE8TsQzCsX

— Macy Petty (@macypetty0416) February 6, 2025

Effective Immediately: @NCAA responds to @POTUS’s Women’s Sports Executive Order with a rule change to keep women’s collegiate sports FEMALE! @WheelerKaitlynn pic.twitter.com/jErlG88L38

— Independent Women’s Forum (@IWF) February 6, 2025

President Trump himself responded to the NCAA’s announcement, writing “This is a great day for women and girls across our Country. Men should have NEVER been allowed to compete against women in the first place, but I am proud to be the President to SAVE Women’s Sports.”

Trump added, “We expect the Olympics Committee to also use Common Sense, and implement this policy, which is very popular among the American People, and the entire World!”

pic.twitter.com/0DvI2cPDBo

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 6, 2025

Underscoring how popular the policy is, an ad featuring Riley Gaines produced by pro women in sports Athletic clothing company XX-XY has gone mega viral.

In the ad, Gaines and Reno volleyball captain Sia Liilii listen to the radio as a talking head accuses the women of being “right-wing bigots” over their opposition to men participating in women’s sports.

Real Girls Rock.

The Big Game Ad Nike Would Never Make. pic.twitter.com/eWkNjtPpPS

— XX-XY Athletics (@xx_xyathletics) February 2, 2025

The ad, titled ‘Real Girls Rock’ has been viewed millions of times after author JK Rowling also shared it.

This is the first and likely the last time I’ll retweet an ad, but I love it. pic.twitter.com/oALpr5c10v

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) February 3, 2025

Riley Gaines & the courageous @SiaLiilii join @FoxNews to discuss “Real Girls Rock”.

Where does their will to fight come from? Worth a watch.

These two do indeed ROCK. @Riley_Gaines_ pic.twitter.com/JEMdaWtgcv

— XX-XY Athletics (@xx_xyathletics) February 4, 2025

XX-XY Athletics CEO Jennifer Sey reacted to Rowling’s comments in a Fox News interview:

Thanks @FoxNews & @DanaPerino for having CEO @JenniferSey on to discuss Real Girls Rock viral ad & this growing movement of bravery! pic.twitter.com/RuFOoRnrLE

— XX-XY Athletics (@xx_xyathletics) February 5, 2025

The company also posted an emotional reaction to Trump signing the executive order  to protect women’s sports.

Can’t stop tearing up over this photo pic.twitter.com/uXoCj6iBVv

— XX-XY Athletics (@xx_xyathletics) February 6, 2025

They are also calling on other major sports brand companies to make a stand for women’s sports.

Dear @Nike,

It’s a New Year.

A new administration.

And a new opportunity for you to stand up for women & girls.

You have the platform. You have means.

Will you join us?

Will you just do it? pic.twitter.com/gKTWApZoYe

— XX-XY Athletics (@xx_xyathletics) January 5, 2025

*  *  *

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Slowly, the unprecedented payrolls fabrication of the Biden administration, which we spent much of the past 4 years exposing to our readers, is starting to unravel.

Earlier today, the BLS confirmed what we previewed last night (see “Tomorrow’s Jobs Report Will Finally Capture The Surge In Illegal Aliens, Lead To Another Big Negative Payrolls Revision“), and admitted what we had been saying for much of the past 3 years – that most of the job gains in the past few years, and especially 2024, were a mirage, and following the dramatic August 2024 preliminary data revision which vaporized 818K jobs (which had never existed in the first place)…

… today we finally saw the details behind this near-record revision.

As part of its annual revision to both the Establishment and Household survey, today the BLS said that the “seasonally adjusted total nonfarm employment level for March 2024 was revised downward by 589,000. On a not seasonally adjusted basis, the total nonfarm employment level for March 2024 was revised downward by 598,000, or -0.4 percent. Not seasonally adjusted, the absolute average benchmark revision over the past 10 years is 0.1 percent.” As a result, the over-the-year change in payrolls for March 2024 was revised from +2,900,000 to +2,346,000.

Another, perhaps easier way of showing just how dramatic this negative revision to the jobs data series is the following chart showing the monthly change in payrolls pre and post revision. One can immediately see just how much uglier it is, not only because the average increase in monthly payrolls drops for all three prior years (2022 from 441K to 380K, 2023 from 231K to 217K, 2024 from 186K to 166K), but because all of a sudden, those two lonely sub-100K prints in August and October (which only emerged as sub-100K following monthly revisions) were not that lonely and we now learn that June and July were also sub-100K prints.

In short, just as we have been warning since early-2024, the wheels of the US jobs market were falling off in mid 2024, and by the Trump came on board, the jobs market has become one giant Potemkin village on the verge of collapse.

Another highlight from today’s data revision, this time impacting the Household Survey is that the massive gap between the Household and Establishment survey which we have noted on multiple occasions in the past, closed nearly by half when the BLS revised the number of employed workers higher by 2.2 million, to 163.9 million from 161.7 million, largely as a result of the BLS admitting that there are millions of illegal workers in the US, a topic which until the election was especially sensitive politically but no longer is. That said, there is still another 2 million jobs to go to close the gap, but we are confident that shouldn’t be much of a problem.

And the reason why it won’t be a problem is simple: while it won’t get much discussion today, the biggest reason behind today’s solid increase in the number of employed workers is the same one we have been pounding the table on since 2023. It’s all foreign workers, and – as we explained recently – it is mostly all illegal aliens.

That’s right, the BLS reported that in January, over a million, or 1,045,000 to be precise, foreign-born workers found a job (and as Standard Chartered explained lst June, this is largely illegal or “undocumented” aliens) compared to only 8,000 native-born workers!

This means that while we just hit another month of record foreign-born (largely illegal alien) workers, at 31.774 million, the number of native-born workers remains unchanged over the past six years, still below levels last hit in 2019, just before the covid crisis.

This also means that since July 2018, the US labor force has added 4.6 million foreign-born workers, while the number of native-born workers has declined by nearly 700K.

And while this (not really) shocking increase in foreign workers, which really is just the latest in a long series of monthly reports confirming that the only job growth in the US in the past 6 years has been for foreigners, is clearly the result of Biden’s policies, we would recommend that president Trump do something to urgently if not immediately address this critical topic… a topic which one year ago we correctly predicted would win Trump the 2024 election – and which if left as is, will promptly lead to the transformation of the current euphoria in Trump’s presidency, with disappointment.

Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times,

A coalition of 14 state attorneys general said on Thursday that they will file a lawsuit to stop the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing sensitive federal payment systems.

The coalition said that DOGE, an advisory committee led by tech billionaire Elon Musk, has no authority to access federal government systems—which they said contain Americans’ personal data, state bank account data, and “some of our country’s most sensitive data.”

“This level of access for unauthorized individuals is unlawful, unprecedented, and unacceptable,” the coalition said in a statement released by New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin.

“DOGE has no authority to access this information, which they explicitly sought in order to block critical payments that millions of Americans rely on—payments that support health care, childcare, and other essential programs.”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent granted DOGE access to the Treasury’s payment system after Trump took office on Jan. 20. DOGE has been tasked with reviewing agencies for potential downsizing and termination, including the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), to reduce federal spending and boost government efficiency.

The attorneys general also argued that President Donald Trump “does not have the power” to grant DOGE access to Americans’ private information or to withhold federal payments approved by Congress.

They planned to pursue legal action to defend “our Constitution, our right to privacy, and the essential funding that individuals and communities nationwide are counting on.”

The coalition includes Platkin and attorneys general from New York, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

On Feb. 5, a coalition of labor unions sued to block DOGE access to federal payment systems, alleging that it violates “constitutional limits on executive power” and “laws protecting civil servants from arbitrary threats and adverse action.”

The plaintiffs—which include the AFL-CIO, the Service Employees International Union, and the Economic Policy Institute—sought a temporary restraining order or administrative stay against DOGE.

Justice Department attorneys issued a proposed order on Feb. 5 saying the federal government will temporarily restrict DOGE from accessing information in the Treasury Department’s payment system and allow special government employees “read-only” access to payment records.

“The Defendants will not provide access to any payment record or payment system of records maintained by or within the Bureau of the Fiscal Service,” it said.

The proposed order followed an incident in which Democratic members of Congress attempted to enter the Treasury building on Feb. 4, saying they wanted to provide oversight after DOGE was granted access to the federal payment system. Democratic lawmakers have been calling for the access to be revoked.

Trump had previously said that Musk would not be able to take any action without approval from the White House and assured that the government would prevent him from acting in cases of conflict of interest.

“Where we think there’s a conflict or there’s a problem, we won’t let him go near it, but he has some very good ideas,” the president told reporters at the Oval Office last month.