Subscribers,

I’m embarrassed that it’s been so long since I last published here. Not because I think my words carry great weight, but because you subscribed expecting content that I haven’t delivered. I want to thank everyone who has remained subscribed, and welcome to those who joined in the past few months despite my silence. I owe you all an explanation.

The truth is, six months ago I accepted a position that has limited my ability to speak as freely as I once did. I cannot share many details, except that the role is temporary and, in my view, serves a cause and agenda most of you would support.

I had been meaning to explain all of this in a brief hiatus note for weeks but never found the time.

Until Charlie Kirk was assassinated.

Charlie lived by the conviction that we should always speak the truth. My old boss Tucker Carlson used to say something similar: never be afraid to say what you think is true. I realized, through his death, that this conviction is more important than ever. I decided that I can and should continue to write here, even if my current role temporarily limits how or what I can say.

The tragedy of Charlie’s murder also led me to reflect on him, his faith, his mission, and how each of us is similarly called to fulfill a purpose in life.

I didn’t know Charlie Kirk well. But like many of you, I have heard and read from countless people—from those who knew him well to those who never even listened to him—who have all grieved his death. I count myself among them.

A few days ago, I shared my own perspective about why Charlie’s loss resonates so deeply. I want to expand on that X post here.

Charlie was always kind to me when I interacted with him. Early in my career, when I had no following and no connections, he gave me media access to his events. He had nothing to gain from helping me—he simply did.

I also met my wife through Turning Point, back in undergrad. She was starting a chapter on campus, and a mutual friend convinced me to attend the first meeting. We used to joke about needing a better “how we met” story, but now our story feels like a testament to how Charlie was able to bring likeminded people together, often in ways none of us could have predicted.

When I first heard the news that he had been shot, I was stunned. But by the time I got home Wednesday evening—and in the days since—I have grieved as if I’d lost someone I knew well. Millions of others have too. I still can’t fully explain it, except to say that perhaps it’s because Charlie wasn’t some distant public figure. He was the face of my generation that came of age in the conservative movement over the last ten years. He was our age. We grew up with him, saw him, spoke to him, and watched him succeed. He was one of us. And now he is gone.

The most devastating part of the tragedy, of course, is that he leaves behind a wife and two young children. To be taken from them in such a violent way is terrifying and unthinkable.

It’s also impossible to separate Charlie’s assassination from his Christian faith. It’s at the very heart of this tragedy, and something I have not been able to stop thinking about.

As Christians, we’re taught at a young age to be ready to die for our faith. Thousands have over the centuries. Dying for your faith as a martyr is very much the Christian way. But nothing prepares you to see it happen to someone your age, someone you knew. Charlie, the leading Christian voice for young Americans, was murdered as he professed his beliefs. There is no clearer display of evil.

Yet, that evil has been overcome by the outpouring of prayer and positivity in the aftermath of Charlie’s death—a reminder from God that good will always prevail.

What most amazes me about Charlie is how he found his calling so early in life. Most of us spend a lifetime searching for that kind of purpose. Charlie found his and pursued it to the fullest every day. Alongside his faith and his courage to share his beliefs, that sense of calling is a legacy that should challenge each of us to reflect on and live out our own.

But did they really? I join Jake Novak on Real America's Voice to discuss. Plus, we look at immigration and the MAHA movement's efforts to ban sodas from SNAP and foodstamps, and the Big Soda lobbyists standing in the way.

But do immigrants like Khalil really have a right to say and do anything in a country in which they are a guest? Especially when Khalil himself was aligned with a group that supports Hamas? I explain what's really going on here, and why you can support deporting Khalil without infringing on the First Amendment.

I also explain the latest news coming out of Syria that is being completely ignored in the media. The new terrorist government is slaughtering Christians and other religious minorities, and you barely here a peep in the media. I talk about this and much more on the latest episode of The News Explained.

WATCH ON YOUTUBE:

I joined Jake Novak on Real America's Voice News to explain why these Democrats are engaging in bad faith, and why Trump is right to deport those who protest our country. Plus, I analyze how the market selloff is an overreaction to Trump tariffs that haven't even really changed the economy yet.

WATCH:

YOUTUBE:

You can watch that video below.

I also wanted to share a video of a debate I participated in last week about the H-1B visa program. Throughout the debate, I explained how the entire H-1B program was predicated on a lie that American workers aren’t smart or talented enough to work in STEM.

I’m proud to say the debate’s organizers, Young Voices and CiVL, declared me the winner according to the Oxford debate format, which tallies audience opinions before and after the debate to measure which debater ‘changed the most minds.’

You can watch that below, and check out some shorter clips of that debate on my X account here and here.

Appearance on Real America’s Voice: Trump’s Gold Card and Byron Donalds for FL Governor?

H-1B debate with Young Voices and CiVL

But if Musk and his team truly want to cut into the federal government’s trillion dollar budgets and deficits, there are two specific areas of spending they will have to target next. I explain what those are, and how Musk and his team have already started targeting these agencies, in the latest episode of my series The News Explained.

Watch above or on YouTube below

If you like this video and other content here on my Substack or YouTube channel, don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share!

Watch above here on Substack, or below on Youtube.

WATCH:

I first met Tulsi Gabbard a few years ago when I was working as a producer for Tucker Carlson Tonight on the Fox News Channel.

At the time, my boss Justin Wells was searching for potential guest hosts to fill-in for Tucker on one of the rare days he took off work. Wells had already rattled off a few different names as he passed by our work stations throughout the day, but none of these options seemed like a great fit for Tucker’s show or audience.

At one point when Wells was again listing new names to a few senior producers who sat near me, I finally just blurted out, “how about Tulsi?”

“Yes! Tulsi,” Wells said as he snapped his fingers. He quickly rushed away to his office, presumably to sort out the details.

The next thing I knew, I was on a flight to Los Angeles. Tulsi was set to host the show there, as it was the closest city with a Fox News bureau to her native Hawaii.

The night before the show, Tulsi asked to meet with me. I honestly didn’t know what to expect. Politics and media are full of inflated egos. If you’ve worked in television news, you have likely heard the stories. For every genuinely kind, down-to-earth personality like Tucker, there were seemingly two or three times as many prima donnas.

It didn’t take long for me to find out Tulsi was nothing of the sort.

During our brief initial meeting, I saw firsthand that Tulsi was different. She was kind and expressed real interest, not just in the show, but about me as a person. She asked for honest feedback and valued my input, even though I was “just” a producer. Tulsi showed a rare humility in wanting to know the ins and outs of producing what was then the #1 show in cable news.

In the months that followed, Tulsi and I remained in touch. She was a resource and a friend during a tumultuous period for our show; Fox News canceled the show and fired Carlson in April 2023. We, his staff, didn’t last at the company much longer.

After I left Fox, Tulsi reached out about working with me again as she looked to launch her own show, Tulsi X Truth on X.

Although the show was short-lived because of Tulsi’s involvement in Donald Trump’s reelection campaign, Tulsi never shied away from tackling important subjects—often at great personal risk. In one of her early episodes, for example, she revealed the Transportation Security Administration had placed her on a terror watch list just one day after she had publicly criticized the Biden administration.

In every episode, she prioritized honesty and getting the facts right in every story we worked on, knowing that credibility with her audience was paramount.

Now, Tulsi is being asked to serve in a far more important role: President Trump’s Director of National Intelligence.

While it’s true that hosting a news show is far different than serving as DNI, in my time knowing Tulsi, I have seen her work ethic, her character, and her commitment to and love of this country in ways most Americans—especially her detractors—have not.

These qualities are the very traits we should want from leaders who serve and represent us.

Yes, one’s work history and track record are important—Tulsi Gabbard obviously checks those boxes. She served in Congress, has more than twenty years of experience in our armed forces, and she risked her life deploying to Iraq and Kuwait to defend American freedom abroad.

But we’ve seen time and again that resume qualifications alone don’t guarantee competence or character. Some of the “most qualified” national security and foreign policy officials bear the greatest responsibility for the most disastrous decisions of the last century.

Wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Syria, to name a few, were all orchestrated by so-called experts and careerists—the very same people who now slander Tulsi’s record, question her ability, and grossly question her loyalty.

The only thing they can claim expertise in is failure. Their actions often lead to promotion in the establishment, the media, and nonprofit think tanks. There are never apologies or admissions of wrongdoing. Not for the lies about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, nor the false promises of regime change or nation building.

Permanent Washington has allowed these individuals to double down on their failures, even they cost trillions in taxpayer dollars and thousands of American lives. Maintaining the foreign policy status quo—even if the results are devastating—is unfortunately not disqualifying in Washington.

Ironically, had Tulsi spent her career endorsing any of these regime change wars, her nomination wouldn’t even be in question.

So when you hear criticisms about Tulsi’s “lack of experience,” remember that they’re coming from the same individuals who spent the last two decades orchestrating these failed policies and eroding public trust in the national security institutions.

Somehow, being the antithesis of men like former CIA Director John Brennan, former DNI James Clapper, and former Secretary of State Antony Blinken, for example, makes Tulsi “unqualified.”

Each of these men, along with dozens of other so-called intelligence experts, deliberately played politics and lied to the American public by advancing false intelligence about the origins of Hunter Biden’s laptop. Brennan lied to before Congress when he denied that the CIA was spying on the U.S. Senate, and possibly perjured himself when he denied knowing about the infamous Steele dossier during the phony Russian collusion investigation into Trump. Clapper also lied under oath, when he claimed the NSA was not surveilling American citizens.

The American people did not vote for Donald Trump to continue this cycle of corruption and deceit. Americans elected him to end it—and they deserve a DNI who embodies that commitment.

Not only does Tulsi have the skill and intellect to take on this challenge, but having personally been targeted by politicized intelligence agencies, she is one of the few leaders with the experience and conviction to restore public trust in these institutions.

Even more importantly, Tulsi Gabbard has the wisdom and humility to concede our national intelligence is not infallible, that the consequences of American foreign policy are often unpredictable, and that American power does, in fact, have limits.

That is why the Senate must confirm Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence.

Unlike the “intelligence officials” who have served our nation for the past two decades, Tulsi won’t allow hubris to destroy any more American lives.

The debate started after conservative activist Chris Rufo used Panda Express and Chipotle salaries as a metric to argue the strength of the U.S. economy. Baby Boomer conservatives accused Generation Z conservatives of acting entitled for wanting to pursue higher status careers and for wanting to avoid working class jobs.

So who's right? I get into that, and I assess Joe Biden's legacy on Episode 2 of my series, The News Explained.

You can check out the interview here on my YouTube channel, or below on the link to her Rumble page.

Let me know what you think!

YOUTUBE:

RUMBLE:

Watch here: https://rumble.com/v6a3ooj-america-first-or-last-the-battle-over-jobs-culture-and-our-future.html

Most Americans don’t have time to follow the news every single day or be plugged into current events. We’re all just too busy and too overwhelmed. There is too much news and too many places to get it.

So this new year I decided to tackle that problem with some new and more consistent content here on Substack. Each week I am going to try and bring you the most important news with underreported facts and detail the mainstream media may have missed.

The best part? I’m going to deliver it to you in just a few minutes of your time. No more two hour long podcasts or drowning in information. Just the facts you need to know.

Here’s my first episode. You can watch it here on Substack or on YouTube, below.

Let me know what you think about the content in the comments. Like it? Hate it? Want me to cover or explain something specific? Let me know!

Thanks for watching.

Watch on YouTube, here:

I appeared on American Sunrise on Real America’s Voice late last week to discuss. I’m also set to appear on the Elizabeth Farrah Show on Rumble later this week for a longer, in depth discussion on the issue.

In the meantime, I thought I would share three interesting facts related to the H-1B that I’ll be expanding upon in that interview. Some Americans might understand why the H-1B visa hurts American workers. But my hope is that facts like these will only help further inform Americans about why the H-1B is nothing but a cheap labor program for major corporations.

The H-1B was created after U.S. science organizations created the appearance of a labor shortage to undermine American scientists’ economic bargaining power

As I have pointed out repeatedly on this issue, there is no skilled labor shortage in the United States. In order to believe that talking point, which is often pushed by H-1B proponents, then you would have to believe that America, its education system, and our people are just less sophisticated, less educated, and less intelligent than the rest of the world. That point is obviously untrue, and it has been for decades. As famed mathematician and venture capitalist Eric Weinstein has noted, this lie was pushed for the benefit of employers.

Eight years ago, Weinstein published a piece in Institute for New Economic Thinking where he examined how government, universities, and the science industry colluded to create this false idea of labor shortages to undercut American scientists and PhDs.

“Long term labor shortages do not happen naturally in market economies,” Weinstein wrote. Thus, Weinstein explained, “it became increasingly clear that the groups purporting to speak for US scientists in Washington DC (e.g. NSF, NAS, AAU, GUIRR) actually viewed themselves as advocates for employers in a labor dispute with working scientists and were focused on undermining scientists’ economic bargaining power through labor market intervention and manipulation.”

How did they do this? In part, with an undated, anonymous study published by the National Science Foundation (NSF). It was called “The Pipeline For Scientific and Technical Personnel: Past Lessons Applied to Future Changes of Interest to Policy-Makers and Human Resource Specialists.” Weinstein discovered the study after researching a Congressional investigation into the NSF over concerns that politics played a role in the its labor shortage claims.

“As the study makes clear, the problem being solved was not a problem of talent but one of price: scientific employers had become alarmed that they would have to pay competitive market wages to US Ph.D.s with other options,” Weinstein wrote of the study. “The study’s aim was not to locate talent but to weaken its ability to bargain with employers by using foreign labor to undermine the ability to negotiate for new Ph.D.s”

Weinstein argued this study, along with others, helped push Congress to pass the Immigration Act of 1990, which created the H-1B. “Their aims instead were to keep American scientific employers from having to pay the full US market price of high skilled labor,” he said. “They hoped to keep the US research system staffed with employees classified as “trainees,” “students,” and “post-docs” for the benefit of employers.”

Weinstein authored an entire study about this, which is eye-opening. You can read that, here.

Tech wages have not kept up with the growth of tech jobs

One way to factcheck pro-H-1B narratives about the shortage of tech labor is to compare the growth of tech wage and the growth of tech jobs. H-1B proponents argue there is a very high demand for tech jobs and not enough workers to fill those jobs. If that were true, in a free market economy, wages for tech jobs would increase along with that demand. But they haven’t. That’s because, as many of us who have criticized the H-1B have pointed out, there is actually an overabundance of cheaper tech labor. Here’s one example.

According to data compiled by Rutgers University Professor Hal Salzman, employment in information technology jobs surged by nearly 20% over a five year period from 2014-2019. But wages for those jobs, despite surging demand, only rose 3 percent. Between H-1B visa workers and another guest worker program called Optional Practical Training, foreign workers took two-thirds of all IT job openings.

Companies that bring the most H-1B workers are actually foreign

When most Americans think of companies that are bringing in H-1B workers, they think of Silicon Valley tech giants like Apple, Microsoft, Google etc. And they’re not wrong to think that per se; these companies do hire H-1B workers.

However, most Americans would be surprised to know that it’s not Silicon Valley tech companies that are bringing in the most H-1B workers. It’s India-based IT services firms that basically outsource their services to American corporations. The contracted workers are the H-1B recipients.

According to Howard University Professor Ronil Hira, almost a third of all H-1B visas went to these foreign outsourcers. And according to the Economic Policy Institute, 17 of the top 30 H-1B employers were outsourcing firms.

In layman’s terms, foreign companies are exploiting and profiting from our immigration system by applying for foreign work visas and then subcontracting out those foreign workers to American companies. These workers are paid lower salaries than full-time American workers would command.

No company should be allowed to build a business model on abusing America’s immigration system and punishing American workers. These companies are abusing our laws, our goodwill, and our economy to make a profit at the expense of our workers. At a very minimum, this loophole should be ended immediately.

The debate began earlier this month after President-Elect Donald Trump announced the nomination of venture capitalist Sriram Krishnan as his new White House policy adviser on artificial intelligence. Many of Trump’s most influential supporters quickly criticized Krishnan’s nomination on X, citing Krishnan support for removing country caps on green cards, which would greatly expand legal immigration into the United States at a time when Trump was elected with a mandate to lower immigration into the country.

Then, on Christmas day, billionaire Trump supporter Elon Musk weighed in. In a series of his own posts on X, Musk claimed there is a shortage of engineers and other skilled workers in the United States. He argued that the U.S. should be viewed as a sports team and, that if Americans want their team to win, they should support attracting the world’s so-called best and brightest to the country.

MAGA influencers and other conservatives responded in uproar and in near unison. They argued, as I do, that America has the STEM talent we need right here at home, and that skilled immigration visas, primarily the H-1B, are rife with abuse.

The apparent MAGA rift expanded even further a day later, when Musk’s colleague and cochair of the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Vivek Ramaswamy sided with Musk in a lengthy screed against American culture.

Many in MAGA rightly did not take kindly to Ramaswamy’s criticisms of American culture. America is much more than a sports team. We are a country and a people that liberated Europe twice in two world wars. We are the country that invented the atom bomb, that put a man on the moon, and that built some of the greatest cities in the world. We became the world’s leading economy and superpower, and have been the envy of the world for nearly a century. Yes, that was done with the help of both native Americans and newcomers alike. But it all happened before the H-1B. We didn’t need to open the floodgates to cheaper, third-world labor because Americans weren’t good enough. America, her people, and her culture have always been great.

I made these points in a recent appearance on Newsmax where I was asked to weigh in on this new MAGA divide. I hope to have more to come on this issue in the coming days, as there is much to explain and dissect about high-skilled immigration in the United States. In the meantime, I hope you watch my clip and let me know what you think.

WATCH:

(Apologies to my subscribers who received an earlier draft of the interview last night; mistakenly sent that out over email)

Hello subscribers—sorry it’s been a while since I’ve published here on Neret Files. I realize I haven’t posted since before the election. I of course had many thoughts about Trump’s victory, which was the culmination of one of the greatest political comebacks in history. But the last thing I figured you all needed was another post-election analysis piece about why Trump won. That story was already being told by every other media outlet and talking head in the world.

I’ve also been trying to wrap up a few projects before year end. Chief among those being my interview with my former boss, Tucker Carlson. Tucker is undoubtedly the most famous and influential man in media. He played a significant role in helping Trump take back the White House. I interviewed him last night at Turning Point USA’s America Fest conference in Phoenix, Arizona. I’m working on editing the interview right now, and hope to have it out over the next 48 hours. I am going to share the full interview here first for my subscribers, and will share it on other platforms shortly after. Stay tuned, and I hope you all enjoy the interview.

In the meantime, I’m sharing two appearances I had on American Sunrise on Real America’s Voice. I reacted to the news that FBI Director Christopher Wray was stepping down, and also ripped those rushing to praise United Healthcare CEO killer Luigi Mangione.

In my second appearance, I analyzed Trump’s recent press conference, the drones flying over New Jersey, and Biden’s late-term pardons.

Hope you can watch, and stay tuned for the Tucker interview!

VIDEO: UnitedHealthcare CEO shooter glorified on social media

VIDEO: Trump’s first press conference…plus the TRUTH about drones flying over New Jersey

I had hoped to write a post about this a few weeks ago during early voting. Still, better late than never as they say. Even if one vote is changed as a result of this late election morning post, then I will feel it was worth it.

In my native Florida, voters are deciding whether to legalize recreational marijuana. If the initiative (called Amendment 3) passes, it would create a state constitutional right to possess and smoke marijuana.

Even worse and more absurd than creating a right to smoke marijuana, nothing in the amendment restricts where the drug could be used. That means Florida beaches, parks, and public spaces could be contaminated with the smell of weed.

Even though I have never smoked, I am not personally opposed to someone wanting to smoke within the confines of their own home. But I am strongly opposed to normalizing the behaviors and lifestyles of those that demand the ability to smoke in public. Weed culture is degenerate, and offers no benefit to society.

Take it from someone who lived in a state where smoking in public was the norm: allowing marijuana to be smoked in public drastically lowers quality of life. In New York, the right for potheads to smoke trumped my basic right to breathe clean air. I could not walk to work each day in the city without smelling weed. Weed dispensary trucks were on major street corners. Even Central Park, the place where New Yorkers can go to try and escape the hustle and noise of living in a major city was riddled with pot smokers and the smell of marijuana. Some studies have even shown that secondhand marijuana smoke contains many of the same cancer-causing chemicals found in secondhand cigarette smoke.

Proponents of marijuana legalization claim that regulating the industry will bring in hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue to the state. But they often ignore the obvious downsides and financial costs to public safety and health.

For example, Colorado, which was the first state to legalize marijuana a decade ago, continues to see an increase in fatal car crashes involving marijuana. In Oregon, marijuana legalization led to “significant increases in the rates” of property crime and crimes like burglary and motor vehicle theft. Some animal studies have also shown that prolonged THC exposure in adolescence causes “behavioral and cognitive abnormalities, such as poorer memory and learning ability and a heightened sensitivity to stress.”

Marijuana is also more potent than it was a generation ago. According to the federal government, which tested marijuana seized by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the amount of THC (the ingredient that causes a smoker to feel high) has more than tripled over the last few decades.

Researchers are also finding millions of Americans are addicted to marijuana. The New York Times reported on this and other harms associated with marijuana legalization.

Many users believe, for instance, that people cannot become addicted to cannabis. But millions do.

About 18 million people — nearly a third of all users ages 18 and up — have reported symptoms of cannabis use disorder, according to estimates from a unique data analysis conducted for The Times by a Columbia University epidemiologist. That would mean they continue to use the drug despite significant negative effects on their lives. Of those, about three million people are considered addicted.

The estimates are based on responses to the 2022 U.S. national drug use survey from people who reported any cannabis consumption within the previous year. The results are especially stark among 18- to 25-year-olds: More than 4.5 million use the drug daily or near daily, according to the estimates, and 81 percent of those users meet the criteria for the disorder.

One 2012 study even showed that marijuana use was tied to a loss of IQ points. The researchers found the more a person used marijuana, the greater the drop in IQ.

Arguing against the supposed economic benefits of marijuana legalization, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis rightly pointed out that legalization could harm the tourism industry. After all, why would people want to visit certain beaches if they reek of marijuana?

“What are you losing on tourism? What are you losing for restaurants? What are you losing for other things because this is now a part of Florida in ways that may be off-putting to a lot of tourists?” DeSantis said. “That may be off-putting to a lot of families. And so I think you would see revenue that we derive from tourism go down. And I think some other business revenue would go down as well. So it would definitely be, in my judgment, a net loss for the state of Florida.”

Proponents of legalization also argue that legalization is necessary, at the very least, because nobody should be in prison for smoking a joint. But that is not an issue in Florida. There is not a single inmate currently in a Florida prison for possessing 20 grams or less of marijuana. Not a single one. The idea that Floridians are jailed for simple marijuana possession is a lie and a distraction. In fact, according to the Florida Department of Corrections, the 37 individuals in prison for marijuana-related offenses all involve trafficking amounts. Each of the 37 had a prior criminal record which enhanced their marijuana sentences.

Because many of the practical arguments for marijuana legalization have little factual basis, it leads one to wonder what this push is really about. These practical arguments provide what appear to be reasonable and valid reasons to support legalization. But they’re merely covers for a much more sinister agenda.

At the top, marijuana legalization in Florida is being pushed by corporate interests that stand to reap the benefits while absorbing none of the costs. According to Open Secrets, Florida’s Amendment 3 initiative is the most expensive ballot initiative in the country. Over $100 million has been spent in support of its passing.

At the individual level, aside from ignorance on the issue, it comes down to those in society who want to force the rest of us to accept their drug consumption. They can hide behind arguments about tax benefits and criminal justice, but ultimately these individuals want to practice their habits with impunity. The rest of us be damned.

You have to ask yourself in all seriousness: what type of a person would smoke marijuana in public? Certainly not one I would want to know. What does it say about them? Are they likely to be financially successful? Is someone who smokes in public more or less likely to be someone who contributes greatly to society?

The answers are pretty obvious. Let’s not hand the state of Florida over to these people.

But when I woke up Saturday morning and read about a mass shooting that had been committed in downtown Orlando, Florida a few days prior on Halloween, I was shocked. Seven people were shot, two killed, and ten total injured in an area frequented by college students and young professionals. I know the area well. How had I missed this?

After a little research, I realized that it wasn’t just because I hadn’t kept up with the news over the last few days that I had not seen this story.

There are two types of mass shootings in America: the kinds that involve a mentally ill white kid who goes on a shooting spree, often despite repeated warnings made to law enforcement, and the kinds that happen in Chicago every weekend that nobody, including the media, cares about. For example, most Americans would be surprised to learn that this past July 4 weekend, 109 people were shot in Chicago in 74 separate shootings. That is a shocking, unbelievable number for a city in the United States of America.

The Orlando shooting last week was the latter type of shooting. It’s why it initially received virtually no coverage, aside from a few local and state outlets. The usual activists who seize every opportunity to push for restrictions gun ownership were nowhere to be found.

The suspect in the shooting is 17-year-old Jaylen Dwayne Edgar. He is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and six counts of attempted first-degree murder.

Edgar began firing just after 1 a.m. According to the Orlando Police Department, there were as many as 100,000 people in the downtown area. The shooting sent thousands running for cover.

Edgar ultimately killed two people: 25-year-old Tyrek Hill and 19-year-old Timothy Schmidt Jr.

Lamaria Dean, Hill’s cousin, called her cousin’s killing “evil,” and said Hill’s mother found out about her son’s death on Facebook.

“It’s just so senseless that a person so evil can wake up and decide, ‘I’m just going to take a life today,’” Dean said. “This is not how you want to find out about anything,” she added. “That’s how his mother found out. You don’t want to go on Facebook and see people recording him, laying like that.”

Schmidt Jr. was a freshman at the University of Central Florida and grew up playing soccer in Weston, Florida. It was his first semester away from home. Just hours before going out that night, Schmidt Jr.’s father texted him to “be safe and have fun.”

Tim Schmidt Sr. would never hear from his son again. In fact, the next time he saw his son was as he searched for details about the shooting on X for answers. Schmidt Sr. saw his son lying motionless, receiving CPR from a police officer. He was later told his son was shot in the heart.

Schmidt Jr.’s close childhood friend, Simon Gonzalez, was with Schmidt Jr. the night of the shooting. He had traveled to Orlando for the weekend and was staying in Schmidt Jr.’s dorm. Though they were walking together as part of a larger group when the shooting first broke out, they quickly became separated as shots were fired. Gonzalez repeatedly tried calling Schmidt Jr., but received no response. He assumed his friend had lost his phone in the chaos.

Gonzalez and other friends in the group eventually returned to Schmidt Jr.’s dorm. It was then that they learned victims were taken to Orlando Regional Hospital. Beginning to think that Schmidt Jr. might have been a victim, they reached out to the hospital for answers but were told to go in person for more details.

On the way to the hospital, Gonzalez saw what was likely the same video of Schmidt Jr. receiving CPR that Schmidt Sr. saw on X. The hospital wouldn’t confirm any details with Gonzalez as he wasn’t family. Schmidt Sr. called Gonzalez at 4 a.m. with the news. His best friend was dead.

“He was a very happy, studious, overachieving, hardworking kid like many kids out there,” Schmidt Sr. said of his son. “He was just out to have a night of fun like any college freshman would. And he was simply involved in a senseless shooting.”

Schmidt Jr.’s killer should not have even been out on the streets. Edgar was not a first time offender; last year he was arrested by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office for grand theft of a motor vehicle. According to a local news report, Edgar, a minor, was taken to the local juvenile detention center. But because juvenile court records are confidential in Florida, little else is known about the outcome of that case. Local news also appeared to indicate that he was a high school dropout.

What is obviously known is that he was released after committing that crime, and it’s likely due to judicial lenience as opposed to his innocence.

In a civilized society, Edgar would have been locked up after his first offense. Because he wasn’t, two people are now dead.

On X, Schmidt Sr. reshared posts that criticize Edgar’s mother for failing to parent him and that call for no leniency. He called them “maggots,” presumably because all people like this do is take from society.

Responding to a picture of Edgar, Schmidt Sr. wrote “Fucking fry this bastard. Castrate him. Feed him to alligators. My son is one of two dead. Fuck this guy and his whole fucking family.”

Few should blame Schmidt Sr. for expressing this sentiment.

X later labeled the post as a call to violence, which means other users cannot like, share, or interact with the post. But Schmidt Sr. wasn’t calling for violence. He was essentially calling for justice for his son’s death in the form of the death penalty.

There is nothing redeemable about scum like Jaylen Dwayne Edgar. He is a lowlife and contributes nothing to society. He is filth personified. The rest of society should not be forced to share public spaces with him. We shouldn’t have to live with this.

The good thing is, we don’t have to. Crimes can be punished. Criminals can be held to account. There can be deterrents to future crimes. Grand theft of a motor vehicle and other crimes people like Edgar commit can be punishable with prison time. All of this is possible if we as a decent society so choose.

Juvenile arrest records also shouldn’t be confidential in Florida. It’s likely that they are confidential in the name of protecting teenaged criminals from the stigma of their crimes to “give them a second chance.” But their second chance could be someone’s last. Decent, law-abiding citizens deserve to know who local law enforcement is releasing out onto the streets and why. Show me any proponent of criminal justice reform or soft-on-crime policies that would willingly live next to or send their child to school with a teenager with a criminal record.

Of course, they wouldn’t. No person would. “Equitable policing” sounds nice when it’s just theory…until it’s your kid who gets shot and killed because the system was lenient to a past offender.

Hurricane Helene is already one of the most fatal and costliest storms in American history. Entire communities have been leveled and wiped away. Millions were left without power, and hundreds are still missing. More than 160 Americans are now dead from the storm, the first hurricane to claim that many lives since 2017’s Hurricane Harvey. And according to a just-published study on excess storm deaths, the real death toll could even be in the thousands.

But don’t expect the federal government to provide any additional relief aside from what little it already has disbursed. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who oversees the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), announced today that the agency will run out of money before the end of the hurricane season.

“We are expecting another hurricane hitting — we do not have the funds, FEMA does not have the funds, to make it through the season” — DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas

Maybe that’s because Mayorkas has spent over $1 billion in FEMA funds to house, transport, feed, and provide medical care for the millions of migrants he and President Biden have allowed into the country.

FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program (SSP) awards federal grants to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and state and local governments to “provide humanitarian services to noncitizen migrants following their release from the Department of Homeland Security.”

According to FEMA, funds can be used for shelter, housekeeping, beds, linens, food, cookware, utensils, transportation, acute medical care, over-the-counter medication, personal hygiene supplies, feminine hygiene products, baby wipes and diapers, clothing, and translation services. Organizations that receive SSP funding can also use aid money for labor costs of their own staff, renovations for their own facilities, and management and administrative costs.

The SSP program awarded NGOs and local governments over $360 million in fiscal year 2023 and $650 million in fiscal year 2024. The award recipients, which includes a number of supposedly Christian organizations like Catholic Charities, can be viewed here.

In other words, what Mayorkas really said when he announced FEMA was running out of money was, ‘sorry Americans! You may just have to deal with hurricanes on your own. We ran out of your money caring for immigrants.’

By giving away millions of dollars to care for migrants, the Biden administration is of course incentivizing these local governments and NGOs to take even more migrants in. These groups are directly profiting off the immigration crisis.

In New York City, hotels also stand to benefit. Over the last two years, FEMA has awarded the NYC Office of Management and Budget over $180 million. According to the New York Post, at least 15% of those funds are for hotel reimbursements. That’s separate from the $987 million housing contract DHS awarded to the Hotel Association of New York, a trade association representing over 300 hotels in New York City.

So when these organizations call for “more compassion” to solve the immigration crisis, what they are really calling for is a way to make more money. They’re on the gravy train and American taxpayers are footing the bill.

Meanwhile, the response to Hurricane Helene has been pathetic

For a federal government that has been quick to house, relocate, and care for millions of migrants and send billions of dollars supporting overseas wars in Israel and Ukraine (which received another $2.4 billion from the U.S. just last week), the response to Helene has been pathetic.

Just a few days ago, President Biden said “we’ve given [Hurricane Helene victims] all—everything that we have,” implying there was no more to give. When a reporter followed up by asking if there were any more resources the federal government could be giving, Biden replied “no.”

Though FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell claimed yesterday there were 1,200 federal workers on the ground, local residents are already criticizing the federal government’s lack of preparedness. Avril Pinder, a county manager in one of the hardest hit North Carolina counties, said her community isn’t receiving enough water.

“We’ve been asking for water, and we’re just getting water, and it’s still in low quantities,” Pinder told NBC News. “There’s a large need in our community, and we would like to see a different response from our state partners, a better response from our state partners,” which, according to NBC News, works with FEMA to fulfill those requests.

Pinder isn’t the only official claiming that supplies are missing, or at least, unaccounted for. Republican Congressman Chuck Edwards said state officials have been unable to tell him where FEMA supplies have been distributed. His staff told NBC News that the state “hasn’t been able to find out where [supplies] are going or when.”

When asked by NBC News why water wasn’t getting to those worst-affected communities, Criswell responded with a non-answer and claimed that the agency was “sending as many resources” as were being asked for.

Shameless disdain

The disdain the U.S. government shows for its own citizens is becoming more shameless and blatant under Biden’s presidency. The media are, as usual, covering for and amplifying this despicable behavior.

Just last night for example, Jeb Bush’s former communications director said the “grossest line” of the vice-presidential debate was when Ohio Senator J.D. Vance said “the people I care most about in Springfield are the American citizens.”

Apparently among the parasitic and corrupt Washington D.C. consultant class, caring about American citizens is now a gross idea.

The question is, how long will the average American go on before they truly realize what is happening and what their own government thinks of them?

I went to Springfield last Wednesday, just hours after the former President Donald Trump referenced viral claims about Haitians eating cats, pets, and ducks.

Over the last few weeks, local residents have been attending weekly city council meetings, voicing their concerns over the city's ability to house and feed these migrants.

So far, the only outlet to confirm any story about Haitian migrants eating some sort of animal was The Federalist, which obtained this 911 call a few days ago.

After spending just a few hours in Springfield, it became clear to me that the duck and cat eating story was a distraction from more serious immigration issues facing the city.

Those issues include the housing crisis, crime, and the fact that these Haitian migrants are eligible for government benefits. These problems are especially pronounced because Springfield is not a wealthy town. Its residents aren’t rich. The median income is less than $30,000 a year.

The question of welfare is particularly interesting because many of these Haitian migrants are in the country under the Biden administration’s parole program, which was created to allow fast tracked entry for Cuban, Haitian, Venezuelan and Nicaraguan migrants. Before the parole program, migrants from these countries were crossing the southern border. Now, by flying them in, the Biden administration is able to claim illegal crossings are down among these groups.

Just today, new data from Customs and Border Protection shows that over half a million migrants from these countries were granted parole and allowed to enter the United States.

Under the Biden administration's parole program, migrants must prove that they have a financial sponsor here in the United States. According to the Department of Homeland Security, these migrants must “have a supporter in the United States who agrees to provide them with financial support for the duration of their parole in the United States.” Their sponsors must show proof through bank statements, W-2 forms, or other similar documentation to prove they will be able to care for the parolees.

Since many of these Haitians do have financial sponsors here in the United States, why then are they eligible for food stamps?

I spent my time in Springfield looking into that question, and here's what I found.

A 1996 federal law allows many immigrants in the United States, including those granted parole, to receive federal and state welfare benefits. The Migration Policy Institute, a center-left immigration think tank, has a list and breakdown of all of those benefits here.

For parolees, benefits include things like Medicaid, Section 8 housing vouchers, federal student aid, SNAP, supplemental security income, Medicare, and even Obamacare subsidies. Some Haitians and Cubans are fast-tracked to receive these benefits and can avoid a five-year waiting period that other immigrants face.Most parolees must be in the United States for at least a year to receive benefits.

One would think that these Haitian migrants shouldn't qualify for welfare benefits given that they are supposed to have financial sponsors.

Rose Joseph, a Haitian woman who runs a charity in Springfield called the Haitian Community Help and Support Center, confirmed to me that many of the Haitians in Springfield on parole receive Medicaid and food stamps, and her organization helps them apply for it.

Other Haitians I spoke to in the nearby area confirmed the same thing. One Haitian man named Merrion told me he knew several people who were receiving welfare benefits. He said he believes the benefits amount to several hundred dollars per month.

Later on in our conversation, Merrion explained he had been living in Springfield for about a year. He fled Connecticut after racking up too many driving tickets, and hoped to get a fresh start in Ohio.

A spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Public Safety told me that last year, there were 1,300 Haitian immigrants in Clark County with driver's licenses and over 2,000 with identification cards. But this year, those numbers combined have more than doubled. There are now over 2,300 Haitian immigrants with driver's licenses and over 4,600 with IDs.

The spokesperson assured me that in order to get a driver's license, these immigrants must undergo all the same testing and training required of Ohioans. Immigrants are required to take the skills and maneuverability test to be able to, “understand highway warnings, traffic signs, or directions given in the English language.”

On my second day in Springfield, I stopped at the local welfare office which is run by the county. I saw and tried speaking with several dozen Haitians go in and out of the building, but none of them were willing to speak to us. The government staff would also not allow us inside to talk to their staff or to Haitians inside the building.

One journalist, a man named Tyler Oliveira, did actually make his way into the building. There, a police officer on duty told him that the ratio of Haitians to native Springfield residents in line each day is nine to one, Haitian. The officer also told him the city has hired translators to help the Haitians apply for and receive their benefits.

While I was trying to interview Haitians, this same police officer implied that the area wasn't safe and warned me not to leave my things unattended for “obvious reasons.”

Since Trump’s comments at the debate, the City of Springfield’s communication with the media has been almost nonexistent. The one thing the city has commented on is the supposed bomb threat that occurred last Friday. I was at the welfare office when the bomb threats were first reported. Despite being over a mile away, the county employees forced everyone off the property.

Several reporters in town informed me the city’s spokeswoman wasn’t responding to any media inquiries that were critical of the Haitian migrant situation. I tried reaching out to her and to Springfield Police, for more information on the alleged Haitian driving accidents, and other relevant crime statistics.

The city has yet to respond to my requests, which might be a violation of Ohio federal law. Ohio law mandates that all state government departments respond to requests in a timely manner, something that the Springfield Police Department has failed to do in my case. When I went to the Springfield Police Department in person, I was turned away from the records office.

Specifically, I was looking for statistics on noncitizen crime (whether Springfield tracks citizenship status during arrests), overall crime statistics to see if crime increased greater than the rate of population growth, and police reports on traffic accidents.

Though the City of Springfield has not responded to my inquiries, I did find the following.

According to the FBI, in 2020, the Springfield Police Department reported 338 violent crimes. Two years later, after Joe Biden's immigration policy was in full swing, the number of crimes had doubled in Springfield to over 700. Crime was growing at a rate greater than the city's population increase.

Robberies were up nearly 30%. Aggravated assaults skyrocketed from 171 in 2020 to over 500 in 2022, nearly a 200% increase.

One Springfield resident who works at the hotel I was staying at told me that Haitian drivers “don't know what a stop sign is, don't know what a red light is.” Another man I spoke to outside of a grocery store told me he witnessed three car accidents at the same intersection in a span of just a few hours.

A recent report in Reuters last week claimed that much of what I heard and saw in Springfield is true. Here’s what the outlet said about Springfield

Enrollment in Medicaid and federal food assistance and welfare programs surged. So did rents and vehicle accidents, including a collision last year when a Haitian without a U.S. driver's license drove into a school bus, killing 11-year-old Aiden Clark and injuring 26 other children.

The number of affordable housing vouchers fell as landlords moved to market-based rents that were rising in the face of higher demand, a blow to existing residents relying on them.

As Reuters notes, there are individuals and organizations that stand to benefit financially from immigration crisis in the United States, with government contracts and vouchers.

Catholic Charities is one of those organizations. I visited the local Catholic Charities office in Springfield, but it was closed while I was there.

Next door, however, I found something perhaps even more interesting, an immigration mill of sorts. U.S. citizenship and legal status for sale.

A sign on the door in English and Creole claimed to offer work permits, Temporary Protected Status, a “family package,” citizenship, and political asylum in prices ranging from $250 to $1,500.

Who knew American citizenship was that cheap?

I spoke to the paralegal who runs the office and he contradicted his own advertisement, claiming that he only helps Haitians process their TPS and work permits. While he would likely argue that he's only charging to fill out these forms and process them with the government, the point is why are we allowing people to profit from our immigration system like this?

There are many other cities and towns across the United States facing similar problems to Springfield, and they aren't getting the right attention from our leaders, our politicians, or the media.

Regardless of what you think of Trump's comments about Springfield, one thing is indisputably true: Americans need to start talking about these places, places like Springfield, before it's too late.