dChan - Q Origins Project Archive

Anonymous ID: 762b6d July 22, 2025, 9:16 p.m. No.23366486 🗄️.is 🔗kun

President Trump Oval office remarks with Philippine President

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wDGsbekM0g

Jim Jordan Subpoenas top assistant to Jack Smith

The House Judiciary chair is ordering Thomas Windom to appear before the committee on Sept. 30.

House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan is calling a member of the team that prosecuted President Donald Trump to testify before his committee.

The Ohio Republican sent the subpoena to Thomas Windom, former senior assistant special counsel who worked under then-special counsel Jack Smith. Then-Attorney General Merrick Garland had appointed Smith to lead the Justice Department’s cases around Trump’s retention of classified documents and his role in efforts to subvert the results of the 2020 election.

Windom previously sat with the House Judiciary panel on June 12 as part of Jordan’s probe into efforts under the previous administration to investigate Trump. According to a letter from Jordan, Windom declined to answer some questions without authorization from the Justice Department. Jordan countered that such authorization was not necessary.

“The Committee sought your voluntary cooperation with our inquiry because, due to your service as a senior official on Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team, it believes you possess information that is vital to [its] oversight,” the letter from Jordan said. “Your refusal to answer several questions in your transcribed interview impedes the Committee’s oversight, and your stated bases for declining to cooperate fully are not persuasive.”

Jordan ordered Windom to appear before the panel on Sept. 30 at 10 a.m.

The Trump administration and congressional Republicans have continued to leverage their trifecta in Washington to target political adversaries, particularly those with ties to the Biden administration. Earlier this year, the Justice Department launched a so-called “Weaponization Working Group” tasked with, among other matters, reviewing efforts by Smith’s team under Biden’s DOJ.

Smith moved to dismiss the cases against Trump after he won the 2024 election, citing department policy that bars prosecuting a sitting president.

https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/07/21/congress/jim-jordan-subpoena-doj-prosecutor-trump-thomas-windom-00466133

Gutfeld: Trump was the remedy Dems needed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1M2nl6uPaY

Anonymous ID: 762b6d July 22, 2025, 9:24 p.m. No.23366513 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>6616

California's Minimum Wage Hike Cost 18,000 Fast-Food Jobs as Employment Ticked Up in Other States

The law transferred wealth from workers who lost their jobs to those who didn’t.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1228 into law in September 2023, which established a Fast Food Council within California's Department of Industrial Relations and increased the minimum wage for 500,000 fast food workers from $16.00 per hour to $20 per hour on April 1, 2024. Newsom celebrated his signing of the bill as "one step closer to fairer wages…by giving hardworking fast-food workers a stronger voice and seat at the table." Former Assemblymember Chris Holden (D–Pasadena), the bill's primary sponsor, described it as "one of the most impactful fast food wage laws that this country has ever seen."

The law was certainly impactful: A working paper recently published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) found that the law increased wages in California's fast food sector by 8 percent relative to the rest of the country. But not all of the consequences of the law were intended or positive for workers.

The NBER paper also found that California's fast food employment decreased by 2.64 percent from September 2023 (when Newsom signed the bill into law) to September 2024, while fast food employment elsewhere in the U.S. increased by 0.10 percent over this same period. The paper's economists estimate that the law caused "a loss of 18,000 jobs that would have otherwise existed in the absence of the policy." This finding is particularly striking considering employment trends in California and the rest of the United States.

The authors note that "fast food employment in California had, in fact, grown slightly more than fast food employment in the rest of the United States prior to AB 1228's enactment." Taking this into account, the economists estimated that California's fast food industry employment contracted by 3.2 percent relative to fast food employment in the U.S. and by 3.5 percent when only compared to states that did not enact minimum wage increases (which bias the estimate downward). California's fast food employment shrank "even as employment in other sectors of the California economy tracked national trends," according to the paper.

The Employment Policies Institute (EPI), a nonprofit research organization focused on the economic effects of employment-related public policies, found a reduction in the average hours worked by fast food employees in California following the passage of the law. The median usual weekly hours worked was 40 from January 2022 to August 2023, prior to the signing of A.B. 1228. However, from April 2024, when the $20 fast food minimum wage went into effect, to May 2025, when the EPI released their findings, the median usual weekly hours decreased to 35, translating to $4,000 in lost potential annual income under the $16 minimum wage.

The median fast food worker making minimum wage before and after April 2024 still experienced an increase in gross earnings of 12.5 percent, even with a a 5-hour decrease in usual weekly hours. This increase in income enjoyed by fast food workers who retained their jobs following the enactment of A.B. 1228 is little comfort to the thousands of fast food workers who lost their jobs.

https://reason.com/2025/07/16/californias-minimum-wage-hike-cost-18000-fast-food-jobs-as-employment-ticked-up-in-other-states/

'Japanese First' party emerges as election force with tough immigration talk

TOKYO, July 21 (Reuters) - The fringe far-right Sanseito party emerged as one of the biggest winners in Japan's upper house election on Sunday, gaining support with warnings of a "silent invasion" of immigrants, and pledges for tax cuts and welfare spending.

Birthed on YouTube during the COVID-19 pandemic spreading conspiracy theories about vaccinations and a cabal of global elites, the party broke into mainstream politics with its "Japanese First" campaign.

The party won 14 seats adding to the single lawmaker it secured in the 248-seat chamber three years ago. It has only three seats in the more powerful lower house.

"The phrase Japanese First was meant to express rebuilding Japanese people's livelihoods by resisting globalism. I am not saying that we should completely ban foreigners or that every foreigner should get out of Japan," Sohei Kamiya, the party's 47-year-old leader, said in an interview with local broadcaster Nippon Television after the election.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner Komeito lost their majority in the upper house, leaving them further beholden to opposition support following a lower house defeat in October.

"Sanseito has become the talk of the town, and particularly here in America, because of the whole populist and anti-foreign sentiment. It's more of a weakness of the LDP and Ishiba than anything else," said Joshua Walker, head of the U.S. non-profit Japan Society.

In polling ahead of Sunday's election, 29% of voters told NHK that social security and a declining birthrate were their biggest concern. A total of 28% said they worried about rising rice prices, which have doubled in the past year. Immigration was in joint fifth place with 7% of respondents pointing to it.

"We were criticized as being xenophobic and discriminatory. The public came to understand that the media was wrong and Sanseito was right," Kamiya said.

Kamiya's message grabbed voters frustrated with a weak economy and currency that has lured tourists in record numbers in recent years, further driving up prices that Japanese can ill afford, political analysts say.

Japan's fast-ageing society has also seen foreign-born residents hit a record of about 3.8 million last year, though that is just 3% of the total population, a fraction of the corresponding proportion in the United States and Europe.

INSPIRED BY TRUMP

Kamiya, a former supermarket manager and English teacher, told Reuters before the election that he had drawn inspiration from U.S. President Donald Trump's "bold political style".

He has also drawn comparisons with Germany's AfD and Reform UK although right-wing populist policies have yet to take root in Japan as they have in Europe and the United States.

Post-election, Kamiya said he plans to follow the example of Europe's emerging populist parties by building alliances with other small parties rather than work with an LDP administration, which has ruled for most of Japan's postwar history.

Sanseito’s focus on immigration has already shifted Japan's politics to the right. Just days before the vote, Ishiba’s administration announced a new government taskforce to fight "crimes and disorderly conduct" by foreign nationals and his party has promised a target of "zero illegal foreigners".

Kamiya, who won the party's first seat in 2022 after gaining notoriety for appearing to call for Japan's emperor to take concubines, has tried to tone down some controversial ideas formerly embraced by the party.

During the campaign, Kamiya, however, faced a backlash for branding gender equality policies a mistake that encourage women to work and keep them from having children.

To soften what he said was his "hot-blooded" image and to broaden support beyond the men in their twenties and thirties that form the core of Sanseito's support, Kamiya fielded a raft of female candidates on Sunday.

Those included the single-named singer Saya, who clinched a seat in Tokyo.

Like other opposition parties, Sanseito called for tax cuts and an increase in child benefits, policies that led investors to fret about Japan's fiscal health and massive debt pile, but unlike them it has a far bigger online presence from where it can attack Japan's political establishment.

Its YouTube channel has 400,000 followers, more than any other party on the platform and three times that of the LDP, according to socialcounts.org.

Sanseito's upper house breakthrough, Kamiya said, is just the beginning.

"We are gradually increasing our numbers and living up to people's expectations. By building a solid organization and securing 50 or 60 seats, I believe our policies will finally become reality," he said.

https://archive.is/xgvnQ#selection-1397.0-1485.204

Anonymous ID: 762b6d July 22, 2025, 9:27 p.m. No.23366524 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>6616

RING launches flying ‘spy drone’ that monitors your home from air

Amazon’s Ring is preparing to launch the Always Home Cam, a compact indoor drone designed to patrol your home autonomously. First announced in 2020, it’s finally nearing release in limited quantities at a price of $249.99. The drone flies along preset paths, checking on things like open windows or triggered motion sensors, and returns to its dock after a short five-minute flight. While docked, its camera is physically blocked to address privacy concerns.

Equipped with obstacle-avoidance tech and lidar sensors, it navigates safely through single-story homes but can’t climb stairs or be manually flown. It integrates with Ring’s Alarm system and streams live video via the Ring app. Despite its promise of enhanced security, critics have raised concerns about privacy and surveillance, especially given Amazon’s history with data collection. The drone doesn’t record audio and only captures video during flight, but skepticism remains about having a flying camera inside private homes.

https://www.the-sun.com/tech/14773246/ring-flying-spy-drone-monitors-home-air-coming-soon/

Anonymous ID: 762b6d July 22, 2025, 9:28 p.m. No.23366527 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>6616

Thune backs scrutiny of Fed HQ renovations

The Senate majority leader also said the Federal Reserve should remain politically independent.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune on Monday said the Federal Reserve should remain politically independent but called for oversight of the central bank’s expensive headquarter renovations.

In comments to reporters, Thune said he didn’t know whether Fed Chair Jerome Powell could be fired over his management of the building upgrades, where costs have ballooned to $2.5 billion, but said when it comes to interest rates, the Fed is historically shielded from politics.

“That agency is supposed to be independent and operate sort of outside the whims of the political process,” he said. “So that seems to be kind of where — not notwithstanding the president obviously has an opinion about this — but that seems to be where he’s landing in terms of what he may or may not do.”

As for the headquarter renovations, the Republican leader said the issue “requires and demands some amount of oversight.” White House Budget Director Russell Vought has been digging into the costs of the project, and Powell has also asked the Fed’s inspector general to look into it.

The central bank is self-funded, but its profits are given to the U.S. Treasury annually.

Thune’s remarks come as Trump and his administration have been escalating their attacks on Powell, who has held interest rates steady this year despite vehement calls from the president for lower borrowing costs. The Fed chief has said he is waiting to see how tariffs feed through to the economy before making any policy moves, though he expects to cut rates sometime later this year.

The senator said he met with Trump today but they did not discuss Powell.

https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/07/21/congress/thune-scrutiny-fed-hq-renovations-central-bank-independence-00465911

Anonymous ID: 762b6d July 22, 2025, 9:28 p.m. No.23366530 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>6616

OSINTdefender

@sentdefender

During an interview Monday with Fox New’s Bret Baier, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi admitted that several of Iran’s nuclear facilities had been “seriously damaged/destroyed” but that the extent of the damage is still under evaluation, adding that Iran is not currently enriching uranium because of damage caused to the Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan nuclear facilities by last month’s strikes by the U.S. Air Force and Navy.

https://x.com/sentdefender/status/1947519372547035202

Anonymous ID: 762b6d July 22, 2025, 9:33 p.m. No.23366543 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>6616

Trump announces trade agreement with the Philippines and terms of deal with Indonesia

President Donald Trump said Tuesday he and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of the Philippines have reached a trade agreement. Shortly after, he also revealed more detailed terms of an agreement with Indonesia.

Both agreements call for 19% tariffs on goods the US imports from the two countries, paid by American businesses, while American goods shipped there won’t be charged a tariff.

Trump’s announcement of the agreement with the Philippines came after he met with Marcos at the White House on Tuesday.

“It was a beautiful visit, and we concluded our Trade Deal,” Trump wrote on his social media platform. However, it was not immediately apparent if the two leaders formally signed anything. Similar to other recent trade announcements, few details were initially revealed.

Marcos is the first Southeast Asian leader to meet Trump in his second term, and the agreement with the Philippines marks the fifth struck over the past three months, as countries try to negotiate lower tariffs before the August 1 deadline. No new details have come to light on the agreement Trump announced with Vietnam earlier this month. Administration officials have not revealed why that’s the case.

Trump and administration officials promised dozens more trade deals in April after they paused “reciprocal” tariffs. More recently, they’ve changed their tone, stressing that Trump is focusing on the quality of deals rather than quantity.

Trump has put much of the global economy on notice, threatening a slew of higher tariffs, including rates going as high as 50% on trading partners and a 50% copper import tax across the board — set to take effect next week. He’s said he’ll stand firm on the August 1 deadline for countries to make deals or risk facing higher tariffs, yet investors have largely shrugged off that possibility.

''Philippines on Trump’s ‘good list’''

Earlier Tuesday in the Oval Office, Trump told reporters he was not ready to make a trade deal with Marcos because “he’s negotiating too tough.” But he said they’d “probably agree to something.”

The agreement is somewhat unusual given that other countries Trump claims to have reached agreements with call for lower tariff rates compared to levels the president threatened to impose in April. Meanwhile, goods from the Philippines were charged a minimum 17% “reciprocal” tariff in April before Trump paused those. Earlier this month, he threatened a 20% tariff on goods from the Philippines as of August 1.

The US imported $14 billion worth of goods from the Philippines last year, according to data from the US Commerce Department. Top goods shipped from there include computers and other electronics, processed foods, machinery and apparel. Meanwhile, the US exported $9 billion worth of Filipino goods. Computers and other electronics, as well as processed foods, were also among the top goods the US shipped there.

Prior to the bilateral meeting, Philippine Finance Secretary Ralph Recto said the country is open to slashing tariffs on select American goods to zero to persuade Trump to lower reciprocal tariff from the US. Recto stopped short of revealing which products would potentially be part of the concessions, but said Manila is pushing for a possible free trade agreement with the US.

“The Philippines is going OPEN MARKET with the United States, and ZERO Tariffs. The Philippines will pay a 19% Tariff. In addition, we will work together Militarily,” Trump wrote on Truth Social after meeting with Marcos.

Marcos later told reporters at the Blair House that Manila may allow zero tariffs on US automobiles, Philippine media ABS-CBN News reported, but provided no further timeline.

''Indonesia agreement terms spelled out''

Trump announced a similar agreement with Indonesia last week, calling for the same tariff rates. On Tuesday, more details were revealed in a joint statement published by the United States and Indonesia.

“It is my Great Honor to announce our Trade Agreement with the Republic of Indonesia, as represented by their Highly Respected President, Prabowo Subianto,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Trump and administration officials highlighted non-tariff trade barriers that Indonesia agreed to modify. Those include eliminating taxes on digital service revenue, like advertising on streaming and social media sites; and “pre-shipment inspection or verification requirements” on American goods, administration officials said on a call on Tuesday.

On the latter, officials told reporters these systems were especially burdensome for farmers to export their goods and that eliminating them will help open up the market to them.

Additionally, Indonesia agreed to accept US Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards and remove export restrictions on critical minerals.

Goods from Indonesia briefly faced a 32% tariff in April before Trump paused “reciprocal” tariffs. Countries that were due to face those tariffs have been charged a minimum 10% tariff for the past three months. That’s due to end August 1.

Indonesia is America’s 23rd top trading partner, according to US Commerce Department data from last year. The United States imported $28 billion worth of merchandise from there last year. Apparel and footwear were the top two goods Americans bought.

Meanwhile, the United States exported $10 billion worth of goods to Indonesia last year. Oilseeds and grain as well as oil and gas were the top two exports.

https://lite.cnn.com/2025/07/22/business/trump-philippines-trade-deal

DoJ staffer sacked for husband’s anti-ICE app

Carolyn Feinstein says she was fired without warning after a decade at the government agency.

A Department of Justice (DoJ) employee claims she was fired “in retribution” after bosses discovered her husband was the creator of an anti-ICE app.

Carolyn Feinstein said she was unfairly removed from her post because of the role her husband, Joshua Aaron, played in developing ICEBlock.

The ICEBlock app sends warnings to users when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are nearby.

Earlier this month, Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, issued a warning to Mr Aaron, accusing him of “threatening the lives” of ICE agents.

Ms Feinstein received a letter on Friday saying her role has been terminated at the DoJ, where she has worked for almost a decade.

“This was retribution. I was fired because of the actions, or activism, of my husband,” Ms Feinstein told The Daily Beast.

“It is insulting to me because I dedicated myself and my career to serving the people of the United States, and now the DoJ is claiming I was attempting to harm some of them. And that’s not true.”

Ms Feinstein, who works in bankruptcy fraud, said she was “targeted” because of her husband’s work.

Mr Aaron infuriated Trump supporters earlier this month when he gave an interview to CNN discussing his reasons for developing ICEBlock.

The app allows users to pin on a map whenever they spot ICE agents, which then sends a notification to other users within a five-mile radius to help them evade arrest.

Mr Aaron said he launched the app in April because he wanted to do something “to fight back” against Mr Trump’s ICE raids, which he said were reminiscent of Nazi Germany.

Ms Bondi criticised the app developer, saying the app puts officers at risk of injury by revealing their locations.

“He’s giving a message to criminals where our federal officers are, and he cannot do that. And we are looking at it,” she said in a press conference.

“We are looking at him. And he better watch out because that’s not a protected speech. That is threatening the lives of our law enforcement officers throughout this country.”

Tom Homan, Donald Trump’s border tsar, also blasted CNN for “pushing” the app and urged the DoJ to investigate the matter.

Following the backlash, Ms Feinstein claimed she informed the DoJ of her relationship with Mr Aaron because the couple began receiving threats.

“Since we live in the same house, I thought it was pertinent to contact my employer, the DoJ, to notify them of death threats that were coming in and just in case I needed to be out of the office, so they would be prepared,” she told the Daily Beast.

A DoJ committee apparently contacted Ms Feinstein to ask her about her interests in the app. She is a minority shareholder of All U Chart, Inc., the company that holds the IP for ICEBlock.

Last week, the far-Right influencer Laura Loomar posted on X that she had identified Ms Feinstein as Mr Aaron’s spouse and urged the DoJ to fire her.

Shortly afterwards, Mr Homan gave an interview to Newsmax in which he said Ms Loomer had shared her findings with him and that he had contacted the DoJ, warning Mr Aaron that he is “giving a heads up to criminals”.

Within 24 hours of Mr Homan’s comments, Ms Feinstein allegedly received a termination letter accusing her of showing a “lack of candor”.

Ms Feinstein told The Daily Beast: “My service to the people of the United States was unbiased.

“Each one of them landed on the same level for me. I didn’t play favourites, I didn’t have a disservice to any person within the United States because of who they are, what they look like, or where they work.”

A DoJ spokesman said: “For several weeks, the Department of Justice inquired into this former employee’s activities and discovered she has a sizable interest in All U Chart, Inc., the company that holds the IP for ICEBlock.

“ICEBlock is an app that illegal aliens use to evade capture while endangering the lives of ICE officers by disclosing their location. This DoJ will not tolerate threats against law enforcement or law enforcement officers.”

https://archive.is/KbgmP#selection-3419.0-3513.223