Category Archives: Industry Jobs Oil Economics

Yes, China is Surrounding the S. China Sea, but what about Florida?

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The two faced dragon….tie to really recalibrate the relationship between the United States and China AGAIN….Previously n this website, I have discussed not only by a post but several times on radio about how the former intelligence/snooping base owned by Russia in Cuba known as the Lourdes SIGINT station was sold to China….no one in media or the national security realm seems to give it much attention…but now…we have an additional problem with China and that is the Bahamas.

How about the largest Chinese embassy in the world with hundreds of Chinese intelligence officers deployed there…..Embassy of China in Nassau in Nassau, Bahamas (Google Maps)

In part from FNC:

“The People’s Republic of China has been making diplomatic, economic and even military and quasi-military inroads into the Caribbean, South and Central America for the past couple of decades,” retired Rear Adm. Peter Brown, former Homeland Security advisor to President Donald Trump, told Fox News Digital.

Brown pointed to the rise in dual-use infrastructure projects along the Bahamas coastline, which is located just 50 miles off the coast of Florida.

“It doesn’t take a lot of imagination for the People’s Republic of China to use its commercial footprint in the Bahamas to monitor, exploit and perhaps even do worse to [the] U.S.,” he said. Pointing to the Chinese-controlled British Colonial Hotel in Nassau, Bahamas, Brown said that its location directly across from the U.S. Embassy could give way to intelligence gathering on U.S. personnel.

The hotel is owned by a Chinese company, Chow Tai Fook Enterprises, which has raised geopolitical concerns given its location. Fox News Digital has reached out to the British Colonial Hotel for comment.

China has invested heavily in the Bahamas through a range of additional high-profile projects, including a $40 million grant for a national stadium, a $3 billion mega-port in Freeport, and $40 million for the North Abaco Port and Little Abaco Bridge.

In 2019, now-Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned in a Miami Herald op-ed that the devastation caused by the natural disaster could create an opening for the People’s Republic of China to use aid as a Trojan horse to gain a foothold near American shores.

“By targeting the Bahamian government in this period of crisis, Beijing would be making the same opportunistic play to access critical foreign infrastructure,” Rubio wrote in 2019. “But in this case, the national security threat is especially perilous, as it would give China a foothold just 50 miles from the coast of Florida.”

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How about another look at things in the Caribbean…Chinese expansion

Chinese Expansion in the Caribbean (Extra) - Virtual Mirage

China’s Influence in the Caribbean:

China is a member of both the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and an observer at the Organization of American States (OAS). Alongside Italy and Germany, China is the third largest shareholder at the CDB with 5.6% of overall shares, exponentially higher than the majority of Caribbean countries.

The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) engagement in the Caribbean has largely focused on investments in infrastructure and developing trade relationships. As of 2022, ten Caribbean countries have signed up to Belt and Road (BRI) – Cuba, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Antigua & Barbuda, Dominica, Barbados, Grenada, Trinidad & Tobago, Guyana, and Suriname.

The PRC is working towards diminishing the region’s ties to Taiwan as the region contains the largest bulk of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies. Today, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Kitts and Nevis, Haiti, and Belize remain the only Caribbean nations that recognize Taiwan.

China’s Trade and Economic Investment in the Caribbean

While the Caribbean’s trade with China has grown at a slower pace than overall trade with the region, it increased from $1 billion in 2002 to $8 billion in 2019, with an estimated $6.1 billion in Chinese exports and $1.9 billion in imports.

China is a major trading partner of Cuba’s and Chinese businesses are involved in the Cuba’s telecommunications, tourism, mining, and energy sectors.

Cuba is highly dependent on China and ongoing economic challenges resulted in the reconstructing of an estimated $4 billion in debt to China in 2011 and another restructuring in 2015. For more reading click here.

The U.S. Must Join China’s Belt and Road In Developing The Caribbean ...

The U.S. Must Join China’s Belt and Road In Developing The Caribbean ...

How Badly is the Taxpayer Being Fleeced?

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We have some indications as noted by what DOGE has uncovered…but it hardly all of it. The House is working diligently on the Trump Big Beautiful Bill because much of what has come from DOGE as well as Cabinet secretaries, there will need to be legislative action to stop the stupid as in spending in the future….yet…check out what my long time friends at Open the Books has uncovered….

In part:

BY THE NUMBERS

During fiscal year 2024, federal agencies reported $161.5 billion in improper payments – money sent to the wrong entity, for the wrong amount or wrong reason – according to data released by the Office of Management and Budget in November.

That means President Biden left office having presided over $925.7 billion in waste, fraud, abuse and duplicative payments – and that’s just what agencies were able to report.

Adjusted for inflation, the figure grows to $986.2 billion – almost a trillion dollars lost through improper payments!

That’s the worst for any president since reporting began in 2004, even when adjusting for inflation.

NOTE: Perhaps unsurprisingly, the single-year record came during the fog of Covid, as enormous amounts of cash were shoveled out quickly by Congress. Fiscal year 2021 say $281.4 billion in improper payments, which we now know includes Covid-related aid that was subject to massive fraud.

BY AGENCY

As Open the Books first reported in RealClearInvestigations, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services wasted $87 billion in improper payments, more than any other government entity. Medicare reimbursements to health providers had a 7.7% mistake rate this year, the worst since percentages were first reported in 2019.

Another $4 billion was sent to recipients who had issues regarding their citizenship, including $824 million in unemployment insurance from the Department of Labor.

The government also sent $346 million to dead people, mostly because the Office of Personnel Management continued to send benefits to retirees who are no longer alive. That’s the highest amount since at least 2021.

The Treasury Department is working to rectify the problem of payments sent to dead people, having reported it recouped $31 million in such payments in five months. It did so simply by gaining access to the Social Security Administration’s federal death database. It’s amazing what can happen when the left hand simply knows what the right hand is doing! That said, Open the Books has reported $3.6 billion in Covid stimulus checks went to dead people. As our CEO, John Hart, told FOX News, “There are miles to go before we break even.”

Other Covid-era programs continued to have some of the worst improper payment rates. Roughly 25%, or $2 billion, of loans forgiven under the Paycheck Protection Program this year were paid improperly.

The data was released on Wednesday afternoon, Nov. 27, the day before Thanksgiving, leaving little time for negative coverage before families began breaking bread.

For comparison, Biden leaves office with an overall mistake rate of 5.42%, slightly higher than President Trump’s 4.94% in his first term. Still, Trump presided over $846.8 billion in improper payments, adjusted for inflation as of last October.

Now, he has an opportunity to make good on the war on waste.

SEC's Final Clawback Rules: What to Know | WorldatWork

So, as long as President Trump is signing Executive Orders, he needs to sign yet another that stands up a task force that pursues investigations and ‘clawback’ taxpayer money as much and as fast as can happen.

Media Critical that Trump has not Fixed the Price of Eggs

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VP J.D. Vance sat for an interview with Margaret Brennan where she questioned him regarding all the executive orders but the price of eggs are too high..Mr. Vice President?

Exactly where was the media for the last four years?

So to be sure, while VP Vance did a relatively good job in answering why the price of eggs are high…he did miss the moment to call out CBS and other media regarding the Biden ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ which has not brought down the price of anything. Furthermore, not one single Republican voted for that law, why you ask?

After the expert at Forbes took a long look at the IRA, here are their major takeaways:

The Inflation Reduction Act is a slimmed-down version of the Build Back Better bill, which aimed to make historic investments in the nation’s social safety net. The new bill makes the largest investment in combating climate change in U.S. history, lowers the cost of prescription drugs and raises taxes on corporations.

Here are the big provisions:

  • Creation of a 15% corporate minimum tax rate: Corporations with at least $1 billion in income will have a new tax rate of 15%. Taxes on individuals and households won’t be increased. Stock buybacks by corporations will face a 1% excise tax.
  • Prescription drug price reform: One of the most significant provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act will allow Medicare to negotiate the price of certain prescription drugs, bringing down the price beneficiaries will pay for their medications. Medicare recipients will have a $2,000 cap on annual out-of-pocket prescription drug costs, starting in 2025.
  • IRS tax enforcement: The IRS has been sounding the alarm for years about being underfunded and being unable to deliver on its duties. The bill invests $80 billion in the nation’s tax agency over the next 10 years.
  • Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidy extension: Currently, medical insurance premiums under the ACA are subsidized by the federal government to lower premiums. These subsidies, which were scheduled to expire at the end of this year, will be extended through 2025. Approximately 3 million Americans could lose their health insurance if these subsidies weren’t extended, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
  • Energy security and climate change investments: The bill includes numerous investments in climate protection, including tax credits for households to offset energy costs, investments in clean energy production and tax credits aimed at reducing carbon emissions.

The bill passed with all 50 Democratic votes in the Senate on Aug. 7. Democrats were able to secure two key votes, from Senators Joe Manchin (D-W.Va) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), after the pair opposed earlier versions of the bill. Sinema, the last party holdout, expressed support for the bill after the carried-interest loophole provision was dropped.

Nothing reduces the price of eggs Margaret….but what did the Biden White House admit about the Inflation Reduction Act really? It was all about climate change.

On August 16, 2022, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law, marking the most significant action Congress has taken on clean energy and climate change in the nation’s history. With the stroke of his pen, the President redefined American leadership in confronting the existential threat of the climate crisis and set forth a new era of American innovation and ingenuity to lower consumer costs and drive the global clean energy economy forward.

This guidebook provides an overview of the clean energy, climate mitigation and resilience, agriculture, and conservation-related investment programs in President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, including who is eligible to apply for funding and for what activities.

Pass this along to VP Vance when you get a chance please….

Longshoreman Pres Threatens America with Destruction

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It is almost an act of war, it is a threat to everyone in America, it is insurrection…where is the White House of the Department of Justice? This threat and contract negotiations is about a year old…and Biden Harris have done nothing.

The Biden-Harris administration’s Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo admitted on Monday that she has not been concerned about a strike that could create shortages of food, pharmaceuticals and hundreds of consumer goods.

Daggett outlined a virtual nightmare for the American economy if the strike continues, threatening that dealers “can’t sell cars because the cars ain’t coming in off the ships. They get laid off. Third week, malls start closing down. They can’t get the goods from China. They can’t sell clothes,” he said. A delay in the longshoremen returning to work could take months for the nation to recover from.

“Everything in the United States comes on a ship. They go out of business. Construction workers get laid off because the materials aren’t coming in, the steel’s not coming in, the lumber is not coming in. They lose their jobs,” Daggett said, insisting that the companies would be “better off sitting down and let’s get a contract.”

 

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Meanwhile:Image

That yacht he used to own? Check it out…Image

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Did Joe know about his mafia ties?

The Justice Department, which has reportedly lost two cases against Mr Daggett, has accused him of being an “associate” of the Genovese crime family — one of the infamous “Five Families” of the US Mafia.

Charged with racketeering in 2005, Mr Daggett, took the witness stand and portrayed himself as a mob target, despite evidence against him from a turncoat Mafia enforcer saying he was under the mob’s control, the New York Times reported.

During that trial, one of Mr Daggett’s co-defendants, a renowned mobster named Lawrence Ricci, disappeared. His decomposing body was found in the trunk of a car outside a New Jersey diner several weeks later, with the killing still unsolved.

Despite his union serving as a historic symbol of the grip of organised crime on union members, as depicted in the 1954 film “On the Waterfront”, Mr Daggett was acquitted in both cases.

The union leader has previously criticised the Waterfront Commission, set up to combat Mafia control of the port, calling the allegations of mob influence “total bulls—”, and a “dark, ugly attack on Italian Americans”.

“It’s a damn tragedy for the Waterfront Commission to enjoy free rein and target Italian Americans as part of their historic anti-worker campaign. Let’s be real here. The Waterfront Commission has, for decades, claimed good jobs went to only those with so-called ‘mob ties,’” he said in 2022.

As industry goes to automation and technology from fast food the manufacturing…Daggett refuses that at our container ports…“Plus, we want absolute airtight language that there will be no automation or semi-automation, and we are demanding all Container Royalty monies go to the ILA.”

Jack Pennington

Soap Box Time: “Automation”

As everyone has heard by now my Boss is taking a hard stand on the never ending threat of automation that is infiltrating our industry, and I have heard the remarks from those that say we need to learn how to deal with it! Well I have a message for those people “kiss my fat A$$”! I got some news for those same naïve people that think it’s a good thing and by going to automation it’s going to save the consumer money, let me shed some light with some facts and history that nobody can dispute!

For instance, when the big 3 automakers decided to install robotic welders, painters, upholsterers, machinists, assemblers and countless other robots into production with the false pretense and promises that it would “remember this quote” (save the consumer money) well I ask you this question, did it cut costs of an automobile? The answer is an Easy NO! In fact, the cost of the standard car went up to pay for the robots and them being installed and thousands of workers were left jobless!

This fact goes for countless companies today Sam’s, Home Depot, Lowe’s, Walmart and many and many more have continually sold the general public on the premises that by going with automation it will save the public money, with the FACT being thousands of good tax paying jobs went away and the CEO’s and CORPORATE EXECUTIVES are getting rewarded and richer by getting raises and bonuses for making record breaking profits while your dads, moms, brothers and sisters are pushed out of work, not to mention the same retailers that sold “you the general public” on the idea that it will save you money has actually gone up on the price of groceries and supplies of all kinds!

 

Biden’s Admin Lost 291,000 Unaccompanied Migrant Children

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Remember when the Democrats launched a huge attack on President Trump for disconnecting families/children of illegal migrants? Well…hold on…seems things are bubbling to the surface that the Biden administration and that pesky Border Czar, Kamala don’t care about who they lost….noting that an estimated 290,000 children have been exploited, trafficked or are in a forced labor condition.

Where is the joy now Kamala? Where is the child safety of these unaccompanied children? Inspector General Joseph Cuffari did the investigation and is shouting for immediate action. That ‘border bill’ that was killed and blamed on Trump never addressed the matter of the chaos and scandals at the Office of Refugee Resettlement.

DHS Secretary Defends Response to 20-Year-High Surge of Unaccompanied ...

38 Senators wrote a letter about this chaos and failure…radio silence from the FBI, DHS, HHS and the White House. Note the Department of Justice such as it is…does not care either. Human Rights? nah….

READ THE INSPECTOR GENERAL REPORT HERE

Table 1. UCs transferred to ORR, FYs 2019-2023 FY UCs released to ORR FY 2019 67,987 FY 2020 15,128 FY 2021 120,859 FY 2022 127,057 FY 2023 117,789 Total 448,820

Source: DHS OIG analysis of ICE data

According to OPLA officials, ICE ERO has no authority over UCs beyond managing their immigration cases. Therefore, even if ICE were to identify UCs in unsafe conditions, the agency has limited authority to respond. ICE personnel at two field offices affirmed this and explained they had identified UCs in unsafe conditions but were unable to intervene. One ICE officer expressed concern with not being able to take action in a case involving a UC whose sponsor claimed the UC was in an inappropriate relationship with her husband.

Also included in the report is this text:

We issued this management alert as part of an ongoing audit of ICE’s ability to monitor UCs who were released from DHS and HHS custody between FYs 2019 and 2023. The objective of our ongoing audit is to determine ICE’s ability to monitor the location and status of UCs once released or transferred from DHS and HHS’ custody. As part of our audit, between October 2023 and May 2024, we: • Interviewed more than 100 officials from ICE ERO, OPLA, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Center for Countering Human Trafficking, as well as external stakeholders from DOJ and HHS. The interviews included meetings with ICE field offices located in Miami, Los Angeles, St. Paul (Minnesota), Philadelphia, San Diego, Baltimore, Houston, Dallas, New York, and Chicago. • Reviewed relevant laws, reports, and policies, such as the Homeland Security Act of 2002, Immigration and Nationality Act, appropriations acts, prior DHS and HHS OIG reports, and internal ICE policies and handbooks. Additionally, we reviewed and analyzed multiple memorandums of agreement between DHS and HHS regarding UCs. • Reviewed and analyzed ICE data to determine the number of UCs ICE released to ORR from FY 2019 through FY 2023, UCs not served NTAs to date, and UCs who did not appear in court. We conducted this work pursuant to the Inspector General Act of 1978, 5 U.S.C. §§ 401-424, and in connection with an ongoing audit being performed according to generally accepted government auditing standards. Those standards require we plan and perform our audit work to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. Additional information and recom