Last year, as tourism grew worldwide, the United States was the only major destination to see a decline in foreign visitors, recording a 6 percent drop, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council, an industry group. January saw a continued decline in inbound visitors, down 4.8 percent from January 2025.

Visitors from Canada, usually the second-largest source of U.S. tourism after Mexico, plunged by 28 percent in January compared to January 2024.

Other key markets like Germany and France also recorded significant declines, while Britain, the largest long-haul source market for U.S. tourism, saw a marginal growth of 0.5 percent compared to the previous year.

“When 11 million international visitors aren’t showing up, the result is billions of dollars in economic losses to the travel industry,” said Erik Hansen, a senior vice-president at the U.S. Travel Association, a trade group that promotes travel to and within the country.

Would you come to this shithole nation if you had a choice to go elsewhere? 

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MORE — ICE agents receive a bounty for everyone they arrest — legal, illegal, citizen, not citizen — doesn’t matter, the agent gets a bonus.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/21/karen-newton-valid-visa-detained-ice

Horrifying story in the Guardian this morning. Probably many more cases like this that haven’t been reported on as well.

“Karen Newton was in America on the trip of a lifetime when she was shackled, transported and held for weeks on end. With tourism to the US under increasing strain, she says, ‘If it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone’

Karen has no criminal record. She is a grandmother who spent eight years working as an admin assistant at a primary school before her retirement. “I don’t even have parking tickets in the background anywhere,” she says. “I am not a dangerous criminal. I didn’t enter the country illegally and I had everything I needed to be there.”

So why did ICE detain her, and keep her locked up for so long? A possible answer began to emerge over the weeks she was incarcerated. As Karen got to know the guards at the Northwest ICE Processing Center where she was held, she kept hearing the same thing from them: that ICE officers are paid a bonus every time they detain someone. “Individual ICE agents get money per head that they detain – the guards told me that,” Karen says.

It’s no secret that the Trump administration has been pouring money into ICE. Its annual budget – $6bn a decade ago – is now $85bn; ICE is now the highest -funded law enforcement agency in the US. Since last August, new recruits can expect to receive a signing-on bonus of up to $50,000.

Within days of Donald Trump’s second inauguration on 20 January 2025, his administration ordered ICE officials to detain more people, with new quotas that would increase the total number of arrests from a few hundred to 1,200-1,500 a day. Reports immediately began to emerge of international travellers being detained by ICE officers.”

 

 

Trump is not ‘exonerated’ — There are two sexual assault allegations against Trump involving minors

From Julie K Brown
https://jkbjournalist.substack.com/p/trump-is-not-exonerated

This Wasn’t a Tariff Speech. It Was a Meltdown b a 2-year-old throwing a temper tantrum  — and Yes, It’s Fascist.

What Donald Trump delivered here was not a policy announcement. It was not an economic argument. It wasn’t even really about trade or tariffs.

It was about him.

Every inch of this speech revolves around a single grievance: the Supreme Court of the United States told him no. And in his mind, that isn’t a constitutional check — it’s a personal betrayal. An insult. A humiliation that demanded an immediate show of dominance.

Listen to the language. Count the pronouns.

“I can do anything I want.”
“I can destroy trade.”
“This was an important case to me.”
“I understand the court.”
“I wanted to be a good boy.”
“I won by millions of votes.”
“I settled eight wars.”
“I saved 35 million lives.”

There is no presidency here.
No office.
No institution.
No Constitution.

There is only I.

He does not speak of the presidency as a role. He speaks of it as his personal power, temporarily inconvenienced by disobedient underlings. The Court’s ruling wasn’t a legal disagreement; it was a narcissistic injury. And what follows is textbook narcissistic rage.

First, personalization:

“This was an important case to me.”

Not to the country. Not to the law. To him.

Then, devaluation:

“I’m ashamed of certain members of the court.”
“They’re fools.”
“Lap dogs.”
“Unpatriotic.”
“Disloyal to the Constitution.”
“Swayed by foreign interests.”

Courts don’t disagree in authoritarian thinking — they betray.

Then, idealization of loyalists:

“Strength and wisdom and love of our country.”

Judges are not evaluated by legal reasoning, but by obedience. Rule for him, and you are virtuous. Rule against him, and you are corrupt. That isn’t constitutional government. That’s personal rule.

This is where narcissism curdles into fascism.

Fascism is not a vibe or a slur. Political science defines it by identifiable traits:

Personal rule over institutions

Delegitimization of independent courts

Loyalty over law

Nationalism as a moral weapon

Identification of internal enemies

Retaliatory escalation when constrained

Claims of popular mandate overriding legal limits

This speech checks every box — using his own words.

“I can do anything I want.”
“I can destroy the country.”
“I can embargo.”
“There are even stronger methods.”

That isn’t policy explanation. It’s intimidation. It’s the threat of overwhelming state power as punishment for restraint.

And then comes the authoritarian magic trick — reframing a loss as a victory:

“The court actually made my power clearer and stronger.”

He lost. The Court limited him. And instead of accepting that limit, he uses it to justify escalation. You didn’t stop me — you forced me to be harsher. That is how fascist leaders operate.

Notice the tell buried in plain sight:

“I wanted to be very well behaved… because I understand how easily they’re swayed.”

That is not respect for judicial independence. That is manipulation. Courts, in his worldview, are not coequal branches. They are obstacles to be pressured, praised, punished, or bypassed. When they fail to submit, they become enemies of the nation — because in his mind, he is the nation.

Which brings us to the extra 10%.

The timing wasn’t economic necessity. It wasn’t forced by the ruling. It was compensation. A wounded ego reasserting control the fastest way possible. Section 122 was the bluntest, quickest weapon available — a visible show of power meant to say: I’m still in charge. Markets noticed, but they didn’t panic. In fact, stocks initially rose on relief that one chaotic tariff scheme had been checked — a quiet tell that Wall Street trusts the Court more than the man throwing the tantrum.

Fascist dictators don’t start as towering masterminds. They start as small, insecure men who cannot tolerate limits, humiliation, or dissent. They fuse their ego to the state, redefine loyalty as patriotism, and turn every check on power into an act of treason.

This speech isn’t about tariffs.
It’s about a man who cannot distinguish himself from the presidency, who experiences law as an insult, and who responds to restraint with threats.

That combination — narcissistic entitlement + grievance + state power — is not incidental to fascism.

It is the engine.

Fascism doesn’t begin with jackboots.
It begins with a fragile ego saying:

“If you don’t obey me, you are the enemy.”

And that’s exactly what we just watched.

Senator Ron Wyden said details from his office’s investigation into Epstein’s finances shows a massive Treasury Department file locked away in a cabinet drawer, containing records of 4,725 wire transfers totaling nearly $1.1 BILLION flowing in and out of just ONE of Epstein’s many bank accounts.

 

Fourth-quarter U.S. GDP up just 1.4%, badly missing estimate; inflation firms at 3%

Source: CBS News

Published Fri, Feb 20 2026 8:31 AM EST Updated 15 Min Ago

U.S. growth slowed more than expected near the end of 2025 as the government shutdown impacted spending and investment, while a key inflation metric showed high prices are still a factor for the economy, according to data released Friday. Gross domestic product rose at an annualized rate of just 1.4%, according to the Commerce Department, well below the Dow Jones estimate for a 2.5% gain.

Consumer spending rose at a slower pace for the period while government spending tumbled sharply in a quarter marked by the record-length shutdown. The department estimated that the shutdown subtracted about 1 percentage point from growth, though it added that the exact impacts “cannot be quantified.”

For the full year in 2025, the U.S. economy grew at a 2.2% pace, down from the 2.8% increase in 2024.

“The Federal government shutdown clearly sent the economy careening off its strong growth path in the fourth quarter which is a one-off that won’t be repeated in early 2026,” said Chris Rupkey, chief economist at Fwdbonds. Just prior to the data release, President Donald Trump warned that the GDP number would be soft, blaming it on the government shutdown that ended in November.

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/20/pce-inflation-december-2025.html

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NO.  The problem is not the government shutdown.  These figures reflect economic activity BEFORE the shutdown.  These figures show the impact of Trump’s tariffs, his blocking federal funds for construction and other projects, and a gradual slowdown in consumer spending.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SANTA FE, Feb 16 (Reuters) – New Mexico lawmakers on Monday passed legislation to launch what they said was the first full investigation into what happened at Zorro Ranch, where the late U.S. sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is accused of trafficking and sexually assaulting girls and women.

A bipartisan committee will seek testimony from survivors of alleged sexual abuse at the ranch, located about 30 miles south of Santa Fe, the state capital. Legislators are also urging local residents to testify.

Epstein died in what was ruled a suicide in a New York jail in 2019 while facing federal sex trafficking charges.

The so-called truth commission, comprising four lawmakers, seeks to identify ranch guests and state officials who may have known what was going on at the 7,600-acre property, or taken part in alleged sexual abuse in its hacienda-style mansion and guest houses.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/new-mexico-approves-comprehensive-probe-epsteins-zorro-ranch-2026-02-17/