Al Patron
2.1K posts
This is Trump’s long game.
We’ve spent years cracking down on fraudsters. It’s a serious issue - but this has been his plan all along.
He’s politicizing the issue to defund programs that help Minnesotans.
Deputy Secretary Jim O'Neill@HHS_Jim
We have frozen all child care payments to the state of Minnesota. You have probably read the serious allegations that the state of Minnesota has funneled millions of taxpayer dollars to fraudulent daycares across Minnesota over the past decade. Today we have taken three actions against the blatant fraud that appears to be rampant in Minnesota and across the country: 1. I have activated our defend the spend system for all ACF payments. Starting today, all ACF payments across America will require a justification and a receipt or photo evidence before we send money to a state. 2. Alex Adams and I have identified the individuals in @nickshirleyy's excellent work. I have demanded from @GovTimWalz a comprehensive audit of these centers. This includes attendance records, licenses, complaints, investigations, and inspections. 3. We have launched a dedicated fraud-reporting hotline and email address at childcare.gov Whether you are a parent, provider, or member of the general public, we want to hear from you. We have turned off the money spigot and we are finding the fraud. @ACFHHS @HHSGov
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@BenStiller Presenting the Ben Stiller center for Somalis who can’t read good & who wanna learn to do other stuff good too!
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Somalis are not garbage. Immigrants and refugees from anywhere are people like you and me. They should not be demonized. This country is built on the backs of people who have come from other places. It’s what our country is all about. 💙
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Dear @ChipotleTweets
It's not the economy, it's you.
Your portions shrunk.
Your stores are always a mess and unsanitary.
Your service is slow and typically out of X items.
Customers are met with bad attitudes 9/10.
Why would anyone go there?
The sad thing is that Chipotle 10 years ago was the total opposite and it was incredible.
I ate there 20x more than I do now and I'm confident I'm not the anomaly here.
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#Packers RB Josh Jacobs has what looks like a large heating pad on his left calf after taking part in a pre-game workout. He's talking with #Cardinals QB Kyler Murray right now.
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Al Patron retweetledi
@CollinRugg Guy hits the magic bag one time on camera and is suddenly a different person
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NEW: UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer calls for the UK to take back its borders, says the UK is becoming an “island of strangers” and immigrants should learn how to speak English.
Wow.
“Without [strict rules], we risk becoming an island of strangers, not a nation that walks forward together.”
“So when you have an immigration system that seems almost designed to permit abuse … then you're not championing growth, you're not championing justice, or however else people defend the status quo.”
“You're actually contributing to the forces that are slowly pulling our country apart. So, yes, I believe in this. I believe we need to reduce immigration significantly.”
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Our stock market is down. Bond yields are up and the dollar is declining. These are not the markers of successful policy.
I am receiving an increasing number of emails and texts from small business people I do business with or have invested in, expressing fear that they will not be able to pass on their increased costs to their customers and will suffer severely negative consequences.
For example, I am invested in a start up that makes cold brew coffee. Here is an excerpt of an email from the founder sent prior to China tariffs doubling:
“Despite our efforts to mitigate risk, the new tariffs have immediate and significant negative implications for our cost structure, and have the potential to compress our gross margin by 60%+.
Coffee and glass bottles are the largest % of COGs, and will be impacted by the following newly levied tariffs:
•50% increase in cost of glass bottles (sourced from China)
•26% increase in cost of chai (sourced from India)
•10% increase in cost of coffee (sourced from Ethiopia, Peru, and Canada)
These new coffee and glass bottle tariffs alone will add an estimated $1.53 of COGS/unit for our 32oz, reducing our gross profit by nearly 60% to a ~12% gross margin (from 30%). We are currently priced at the top of the range for our set and do not believe we have the ability to increase price to offset this impact in the near-term.
What is particularly concerning is the sudden and sweeping inclusion of coffee and tea in U.S. tariffs, reversing a long-standing precedent dating back to the McKinley Tariff of 1890, which removed duties on these essential commodities. The decision to apply a universal 10% tariff on all imports -- including those that have historically been exempt -- marks a dramatic shift in trade policy and presents an existential threat to Explorer Cold Brew and other specialty beverage producers.
Unlike many industries, there is no 'reshoring' solution for coffee. The U.S. simply does not grow coffee at commercial scale, and domestic tea production is virtually nonexistent. There is no viable domestic alternative in the short or the long term.
We remain steadfast in our commitment to navigating these challenges. We are actively evaluating all options -- supplier negotiations, cost engineering, strategic reformulations -- but the impact of this policy is real, material, and immediate.
We will continue to keep you informed with full transparency as we assess and respond to these developments. Your support and partnership remain invaluable as we work to safeguard Explorer’s future and continue building a brand rooted in quality, transparency, and innovation.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions or thoughts.”
If you want to support Explorer Cold Brew, you can now find it at Whole Foods. A high quality cold brew available in varying degrees of caffeination for so long as it can survive.
And this one from a company that designs and installs home audio and video solutions:
“You wrote, “Almost no business can pass through an overnight massive increase in costs to their customers,” and I fear this could be devastating enough to put me out of business.
Will my clients tolerate a near doubling of their contract costs overnight, or will they expect me to absorb the increases my vendors are already threatening?
If clients resist price hikes and my employees demand higher wages to offset their rising cost of living, we end up in a lose-lose scenario—no spending and no jobs.
While I understand you may not have time to respond, I hope that sharing the fears of a small business owner adds a tangible voice to the broader implications of your posts.”
If the president doesn’t pause the effect of the tariffs soon, many small businesses will go bankrupt.
Medium-sized businesses will be next.
A 90-day pause will enable @realDonaldTrump to accomplish his objectives without destroying small businesses in the short term.
May cooler heads prevail.
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The country is 100% behind the president on fixing a global system of tariffs that has disadvantaged the country. But, business is a confidence game and confidence depends on trust.
President @realDonaldTrump has elevated the tariff issue to the most important geopolitical issue in the world, and he has gotten everyone’s attention. So far, so good.
And yes, other nations have taken advantage of the U.S. by protecting their home industries at the expense of millions of our jobs and economic growth in our country.
But, by placing massive and disproportionate tariffs on our friends and our enemies alike and thereby launching a global economic war against the whole world at once, we are in the process of destroying confidence in our country as a trading partner, as a place to do business, and as a market to invest capital.
The president has an opportunity to call a 90-day time out, negotiate and resolve unfair asymmetric tariff deals, and induce trillions of dollars of new investment in our country.
If, on the other hand, on April 9th we launch economic nuclear war on every country in the world, business investment will grind to a halt, consumers will close their wallets and pocket books, and we will severely damage our reputation with the rest of the world that will take years and potentially decades to rehabilitate.
What CEO and what board of directors will be comfortable making large,
long-term, economic commitments in our country in the middle of an economic nuclear war?
I don’t know of one who will do so.
When markets crash, new investment stops, consumers stop spending money, and businesses have no choice but to curtail investment and fire workers.
And it is not just the big companies that will suffer. Small and medium size businesses and entrepreneurs will experience much greater pain. Almost no business can pass through an overnight massive increase in costs to their customers. And that’s true even if they have no debt, and, unfortunately, there is a massive amount of leverage in the system.
Business is a confidence game. The president is losing the confidence of business leaders around the globe. The consequences for our country and the millions of our citizens who have supported the president — in particular low-income consumers who are already under a huge amount of economic stress — are going to be severely negative. This is not what we voted for.
The President has an opportunity on Monday to call a time out and have the time to execute on fixing an unfair tariff system.
Alternatively, we are heading for a self-induced, economic nuclear winter, and we should start hunkering down.
May cooler heads prevail.
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