https://news.yahoo.com/first-time-90-years-more-201700554.html
NEW YORK — For the first time in roughly 90 years — dating back to the Great Depression — the United States has seen more people moving out of the country than moving in.

The Trump administration has made immigration to the U.S., along with mass deportations, chief among its priorities. But according to the Wall Street Journal, there’s also an exodus fueled by American citizens seeking better lives abroad.

The U.S. experienced a net negative migration of roughly 150,000 people in 2025, according to the Brookings Institution. The Washington, D.C. think tank expects even more Americans than that will leave in 2026.

A Wall Street Journal analysis of data from just 15 countries found that at least 180,000 Americans citizens left the U.S. to live abroad last year. The total number is almost surely higher globally.

Telecommuters and retirees are reportedly finding that their U.S. incomes go further outside of the 50 states. The Journal also cites safety as a top reason Americans are increasingly opting to live abroad.

“You don’t face the prospect of your 5-year-old going into a kindergarten and doing an active shooter drill,” said 41-year-old Chris Ford, who works for a Dallas-based company and lives in Berlin.

The Journal reports the number of Americans living in Spain, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic has roughly doubled in the past decade. Twice as many U.S. citizens moved to Ireland in 2025 than in 2024.

Germany took in more Americans than the reverse last year, while the number of U.S. citizens living in Portugal reportedly increased by 500% since the Covid pandemic, including a 36% spike in 2024.

Meanwhile, the United States saw 2.875 million deportations including “self-deportations” in 2025, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

A popular right-wing account that called a video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes "a masterpiece" appears to be run by a White House staffer, according to records reviewed by WIRED.

https://www.wired.com/story/a-white-house-staffer-appears-to-run-massive-pro-trump-meme-page/

Hours after an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Good in Minneapolis, the Trump administration was already working to shape the narrative. Official White House accounts flooded social media with clips of burning flags and clashes between locals and federal immigration agents, casting protesters—not the killing—as the story.

Among the accounts amplifying that message was Johnny MAGA, a pro-Trump twiiter account with nearly 300,000 followers. “They’re burning the American flag right now in Minneapolis,” the anonymous account claimed, sharing a clip from the White House’s official rapid response feed. “And they really expect you to believe that ICE shot an innocent civilian.”

To its audience, Johnny MAGA looked like an independent voice, another outraged supporter in the MAGA media ecosystem. The account regularly boosts Trump’s Truth Social posts and goes to bat for the administration, attacking Democrats like California governor Gavin Newsom.

But this isn’t just a regular account. Johnny MAGA appears to actually be a White House staffer named Garrett Wade who works for the Trump administration as a rapid response manager, helping to run the very same White House account his anonymous MAGA account amplifies. A phone number associated with Wade is linked to Johnny MAGA, according to a WIRED review of publicly available records, and the connection was confirmed by a source close to the White House.

Wade and the White House did not respond to requests for comment.

And here we... Go!

https://www.usatoday.com/live-story/news/politics/2026/02/28/us-iran-israel-live-updates-news/88757330007/

The United States and Israel launched military strikes against Iran on Feb. 29, according to reports from Reuters, the New York Times and other outlets.

The Pentagon declined to immediately comment.

"The State of Israel launched a pre-emptive attack against Iran to remove threats to the State of Israel," Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz said, according to Reuters.

Explosions were heard in Tehran on Saturday, according to Reuters, citing Iranian media.

> 2/17/2026
So sad - No more Jesse Jackson now.

“Jesse Jackson Dead”
> https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/17/us/jesse-jackson-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=1.M1A.cugk.m2IVnEQct7ey&smid=url-share
“Civil Rights Icon”
> https://apnews.com/43abb84d2ffc76d967f9a5596ebd0be1
Hillary Clinton looking to start something with Trump over the Epstein Files…
> https://archive.is/pqFf3
“What is Trump hiding?!”
> https://time.com/7379143
Spooky!: “The price of going to Epstein’s Island? Silence.”
> https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/17/well/epstein-files-associates.html?unlocked_article_code=1.M1A.qVM6.rJTvCxI43s2h&smid=url-share
Warner reopens talks with Paramount - Can they get to a deal with out Trump intervening this time?!? (Red Text)
> https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/17/netflix-wbd-waiver-deal-talks-paramount-skydance.html
Not sure why this is news or why her picture was on Drudge Report: White House secretary picked to do ballroom work.
> https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ar-AA1Wxb12
Not good…: Meta patents AI tech that lets somebody AI post - from beyond the grave!
> https://metro.co.uk/2026/02/17/meta-patents-ai-lets-people-post-facebook-beyond-grave-26945853/
Bot ‘Arms Race’ risks Human extinction warns programming expert… (Red Text)
> https://www.barrons.com/news/ai-arms-race-risks-human-extinction-warns-top-computing-expert-74df6e59
National debt now at 56 Trillion - could lead to spiraling crisis.
> https://fortune.com/2026/02/17/national-debt-spiral-fiscal-crisis-unsustainable-path-trump-sugar-high-economy/
Inside forum where ICE Agents talk shi* about other ICE Agents…
> https://archive.ph/n3JCu
Repeat: Will Trump get his 4th Supreme Court Justice? (Red Text)
> https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/02/16/88710036007/
Trying Something…!: Gunman at US Capitol.
> https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15568077

As stated above, No more Jesse Jackson.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/02/26/trump-elections-executive-order-activists/

Pro-Trump activists who say they are in coordination with the White House are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that claims China interfered in the 2020 election as a basis to declare a national emergency that would unlock extraordinary presidential power over voting.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly previewed a plan to mandate voter ID and ban mail ballots in November’s midterm elections, and the activists expect their draft will figure into Trump’s promised executive order on the issue. The White House declined to elaborate on Trump’s plans.

“Under the Constitution, it’s the legislatures and states that really control how a state conducts its elections, and the president doesn’t have any power to do that,” said Peter Ticktin, a Florida lawyer who is advocating for the draft executive order. Ticktin attended the New York Military Academy with Trump and was part of his legal team that filed an unsuccessful 2022 lawsuit accusing Democrats of conspiring to damage him with allegations that his 2016 campaign colluded with Russia.

“But here we have a situation where the president is aware that there are foreign interests that are interfering in our election processes,” Ticktin went on. “That causes a national emergency where the president has to be able to deal with it.”

The emergency would empower the president to ban mail ballots and voting machines as the vectors of foreign interference, Ticktin argued.

The idea of claiming emergency executive powers based on allegations of foreign interference attaches new significance to the administration’s actions to reinvestigate the 2020 election. Trump has never accepted defeat, while never finding evidence of widespread fraud. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is leading a review of election security that officials said focuses on foreign influence.

"The question in November is, do we give power to the people who fight for corruption, who fight for fraud, who fight for illegal aliens? Or do we give the government to the American citizens, for whom it was designed and for whom it was created?" Vance said.

His stop in central Wisconsin came two days after President Donald Trump's State of the Union address -- and eight months before the midterm elections.

https://fox11online.com/news/political/vice-president-j-d-vance-plover-wisconsin-manufacturing-facility-donald-trump-state-union-speech-address-affordability-economy

In 2022, Van Orden became the first Republican to win Wisconsin's 3rd Congressional District in 26 years.

"Derrick was talking with me backstage. He was like, 'We have to do a little video together, just so we can get it out there for the congressional campaign,'" said Vance (video in OP post)

With control of Congress up for grabs this fall, political attention on Wisconsin will likely continue.

In 2024, Van Orden beat Democrat Rebecca Cooke by less than three points. Both are running for the seat again. The Cook Political Report considers this House race -- and 17 others -- a tossup.

"Wisconsinites are really struggling, and they deserve independent leadership -- not somebody who's simply a rubber stamp," U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisconsin, a Democrat rubber stamp indistinguishable from all the other mean old female HR Karens.

Baldwin criticized Van Orden when speaking to reporters ahead of Vance's event.

"I'm going to say, 'Welcome to Wisconsin, Mr. Vice President, and while you're here, I really hope that you will listen to the people who feel like they've been left behind by your administration,'" she said. Not mentioning that it is Biden's fault the economy is trash and Democrats have zero solutions.

Vance also echoed Trump's State of the Union themes about affordability and border security.

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/pakistan-strikes-afghanistan-targets-clashes-intensify-2026-02-27/
KABUL/ISLAMABAD, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Pakistan bombed government targets in the Afghanistan capital Kabul and in Kandahar, where its Taliban leadership is based, officials from both countries said on Friday, with Pakistan's defence minister calling the conflict "open war".
The Pakistani air strikes are the first time Islamabad has directly targeted Taliban installations rather than militants allegedly backed by them, a stark rupture in ties between the Islamic neighbours, once close allies.
Security sources in Pakistan said the strikes involved air-to-ground missile attacks on Taliban military offices and posts in Kabul, Kandahar as well as Paktia province. There were ground clashes in multiple sectors along the border between the Islamic nations.
The Taliban said it launched what it described as retaliatory attacks on Pakistani military installations.
Both sides reported heavy losses, issuing sharply differing figures that Reuters could not independently verify.
"Our cup of patience has overflowed. Now it is open war between us and you (Afghanistan)," Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif said on Friday.
The strikes threaten to unleash a protracted conflict along the 2,600-km (1,615-mile) frontier with relations between Kabul and Islamabad shattered by a long-running dispute over Pakistan's accusation that Afghanistan harbours militants carrying out attacks across the border.
The Taliban have denied the charge and said Pakistan's security is an internal problem.
Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed Pakistani forces carried out air strikes in parts of Kabul, Kandahar and Paktia but did not give details.
Kandahar is the headquarters of the Taliban and the city where supreme spiritual leader Haibatullah Akhundzada is based.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/ice-sloppiness-judge-contempt-rulings-b2927381.html

>A federal judge reprimanded Donald Trump’s administration for claiming that an immigrant seeking his release from custody was convicted for marijuana possession in 2009 — when he was 4 years old.

>To support arguments for the man’s ongoing detention and removal from the country, government lawyers attached a document from Immigration and Customs Enforcement that they "indicated" was related to his criminal history.

>They submitted the document in court filings “despite the differences in birthdate, birthplace, parents’ names, and immigration status,” West Virginia District Judge Irene Berger noted in her order to release him on Tuesday.

>“This sloppiness further validates the Court’s concerns about the procedures utilized by the Respondents depriving people present in the United States of their liberty,” she wrote.

>The viral rebuke, first reported by Politico, is the latest in a string of losses for Department of Justice lawyers and Homeland Security officials who are failing to keep up with court orders after thousands of arrests under Trump’s mass deportation efforts.

>Judges within the last week have held at least two government attorneys in civil contempt for failing to follow orders in immigration cases, according to documents reviewed by The Independent.

>Last week, Minnesota District Judge Laura M. Provinzino held a federal prosecutor in civil contempt for “flagrant disobedience of court orders” in the case of a noncitizen swept up in Trump’s surge of immigration officers in the state.

>Provinzino ordered Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Isihara to pay $500 a day until the government returned a man’s identification documents after his release. The contempt was purged after his documents were returned.

https://abcnews.com/US/rift-rises-mayor-zohran-mamdani-nypd-after-cops/story?id=130501796
A viral incident between New Yorkers and NYPD officers during Monday's blizzard has snowballed into Mayor Zohran Mamdani's first test with the police brass.

And with Mamdani capturing attention on the national stage, the progressive mayor is threading the needle carefully to avoid repeating the mistakes some of his predecessors made to ensure he doesn't lose that critical police support, according to a political expert.

Mamdani came under fire on Tuesday after the president of the Police Benevolent Association -- the union representing the NYPD -- accused the mayor of downplaying the severity of an incident. The NYPD said people playing in the snow on Monday in Manhattan were "attacking" officers with snowballs.

"I've seen the videos of this snowball fight. I think that it was a snowball fight," the mayor said during a news conference when asked repeatedly if anyone should be charged for the incident.

Mamdani echoed his sentiment on Wednesday at another news conference.

"What I saw was a snowball fight that got out of hand and it should be treated accordingly," he said.

The incident took place Monday afternoon in Washington Square Park when police were called in about parkgoers playing aggressively, according to the NYPD.

Parkgoer Rahul Nag told WABC 7 that it started off as harmless fun but escalated when several young people began tossing snow from the roof of the park's restrooms. The officers were confronted after they arrived to investigate.

"It wasn't supposed to be violent. It started out as a very fun thing to do, and then, you know, it just escalated, and there weren't any older kids or older people out here," he told the station.

"It was just young kids having fun. And then it kind of became a back-and-forth thing between NYPD and those young kids," Nag added.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/howard-lutnick-photographed-with-jeffrey-epstein-in-bombshell-deleted-file/

>A photo appearing to show Donald Trump’s commerce secretary Howard Lutnick with Jeffrey Epstein has been found in a downloaded cache of the Epstein Files—and apparently deleted from the official version.

>The picture seems to show the pedophile walking ahead of the financier on Little St. James island, where it was already known Lutnick had visited for a picnic with his wife and “his children and his nannies.”

>The picture was located by “jmail,” a site run by two tech workers who have created a searchable version of Epstein’s Gmail inbox by downloading all of the latest releases.

>The group posted a link on its “jmailarchive,” to the image, which shows a DOJ file name. The file name, EFTA01230639, does not match any results in the DOJ’s Epstein website, suggesting it has been deleted.

>When reached for comment, a DOJ official did not deny that Lutnick was in the photo.

>“This image was part of a batch of files that were flagged for nudity,” the official said. “The batch of thousands of images was pulled for review and is being uploaded with necessary redactions on a rolling basis. No files are being deleted.”

>The Commerce Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

>Lutnick, 64, has already been caught lying about his contacts with Epstein. The commerce secretary claimed in a MAGA-friendly podcast interview that he met Epstein only once, in 2005, when he and his wife moved in next door to him. He claimed he cut off all contact after that year.

>But files released by the Justice Department showed that Lutnick and Epstein traded emails years after Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor in 2008.

>Some of those messages were for arranging calls and lunches—including on the pedophile’s island playground, where victims have said they were sexually abused.