June 16, 2025

INCENTIVES MATTER: Nearly 1 million illegal immigrants have ‘self deported’ under Trump, which has led to higher wages.

One of those tracks relies on arrests and deportations of aliens unlawfully here, which at the outset has focused mainly on criminals (the “worst first” strategy).

The other track is more subtle but also cheaper for taxpayers and arguably much more effective —encouraging illegal migrants here to self-deport.

It began with an Inauguration Day Trump directive requiring DHS to ensure all aliens present in the United States — legal and otherwise — have registered with the federal government, and to prosecute those who don’t comply.
…
One way to track the program is by checking employment numbers. One financial wiz cited by the Wall Street Journal calculated a decline in the immigrant population of 773,000 in the first four months of Trump II.

The Washington Post claims “a million foreign-born workers have exited the workforce since March.” The Post frames this as “a sign of the weakening labor supply.” Yet the paper also notes, “Average hourly wages accelerated, rising by 0.4 percent over the month, to $36.24 in May, as earnings continue to beat inflation in a boost to workers’ spending power.”

In other words, with fewer illegal immigrants, businesses had to raise wages to attract workers.

Unexpectedly.

Posted at 10:38 am by Stephen Green 54

THE HORROR… THE HORROR…:

“Crazy Ladies Lecturing Their Selfie Cameras” is the worst show on TV.

Posted at 9:50 am by Stephen Green 291

“LOVE TRUMPS HATE” OR WHATEVER: Brookline Police launch hate crime investigation after brick thrown through kosher grocery store window.

“This morning we received a report from the owner of The Butcherie that a brick had been thrown through their window overnight,” Brookline Police said in a statement Sunday. … “Written on the face of the brick in large red letters were the words ‘Free Palestine.’”

Just after midnight Sunday, police said, multiple suspects in masks approached the local kosher grocery store at 428 Harvard St. from Coolidge Street and threw the brick through the window.

The preliminary investigation indicates that there were at least two suspects in the incident, though the exact number was no confirmed, Brookline Police stated. The suspects allegedly fled back down Coolidge Street to an unknown location after the vandalization.

No other businesses appear to have been targeted “as of now,” the police said Sunday.

Brookline Police identified the case as a “hate crime investigation” with malicious damage of property.

More to come, probably.

Posted at 9:36 am by Stephen Green 63

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: You Know, I Rather Enjoy Being on the Side of Patriotism. “It was rather warm like that here all weekend, so we didn’t have a much of a ‘No Kings Day’ presence here in the Old Pueblo. Apparently, the kids were successful: I checked, and we don’t have a king. In fact, there are no extra kings anywhere in the world as of yesterday. Well done, ‘No Kings’ marchers.”

Posted at 9:05 am by Stephen Green 53

SOCIAL JUSTICE KILLS:

Lives matter less than their hare-brained ideas — but there’s nothing new about that.

Posted at 8:49 am by Stephen Green 57

OY: Iranian media claims to hit Israeli planes, but footage was actually a video game.

Iran initially claimed to have shot down a jet and captured a pilot. The news was denied by Israel, which spoke bluntly of fake news. A few hours later, a new announcement from Iranian sources: an Israeli plane was shot down and there is also a video. The clip bounces on social media, showing a jet being hit by anti-aircraft fire.

There is something wrong, however. The doubts are more than well-founded. The clip is nothing more than an excerpt from a video game, Arma 3. The realistic images, among other things, are cyclically re-proposed to document alleged jet shootdowns. Further detail: the plane inserted in the video game is not even Israeli but, apparently, it would be a Russian model.

Then there’s this:

Losers glom on to what they need to, I suppose.

Posted at 8:34 am by Stephen Green 154

JOEL KOTKIN: AI is killing jobs and fuelling campus radicalism.

Today we may again be creating an assertive and angry class — as evidenced in the recent LA riots and the pro-Palestine protests on US campuses over the last year and a half — made up of degree holders. We can see this in recent reports that show the job market getting tougher for graduates. Hit hardest are those professionals on the “soft” side of the economy (finance, accounting, law, coding) whose jobs are increasingly threatened by the rise of artificial intelligence.

These industries tend to have a higher proportion of humanities graduates and countries in the West more generally have a problem with elite overproduction. As AI grows, there won’t be enough jobs to go round, and even if those graduates do get a job, their employers, with so many candidates to choose from, won’t pay well.

Related: The Coming “Symbolic Analyst” Meltdown. “As Eric Hoffer wrote, ‘Nothing is so unsettling to a social order as the presence of a mass of scribes without suitable employment and an acknowledged status.'”

Posted at 8:05 am by Glenn Reynolds 112

UNEXPECTEDLY!

Posted at 7:58 am by Glenn Reynolds 75

DECLINE IS A CHOICE:

Sad.

Posted at 7:48 am by Stephen Green 67

WEATHER VANES TURN AROUND LESS OFTEN: After brief moderation, California’s Newsom swings back to left with ICE protests.

When Newsom ran for governor in 2018 and for re-election in 2022, his platform included progressive causes like universal healthcare, climate change policy, criminal justice reform, and expansion of social welfare programs.

While presumably well-meaning, Newsom’s tenure as governor has exacerbated many of the state’s challenges like prolific homelessness and rising crime. As of 2023, California is home to over 180,000 homeless people, including over 10,000 veterans. Public safety has taken a demonstrable hit since California’s passage of Proposition 47, which, in addition to making drug possession no longer a felony, also classifies five property offenses for which the dollar value is less than $950 as misdemeanors: 1) theft, 2) receiving stolen property, 3) shoplifting, 4) check forgery, and 5) writing bad checks. Before the passage of the proposition, these offenses could be charged as either felonies or misdemeanors.

Prior to his term as California’s governor, in San Francisco, where Newsom was mayor from 2004 to 2011, shoplifting and property crimes spiked, with police reporting a 15% increase in theft-related incidents from 2022 to 2024.

Additionally, it is increasingly harder for residents of the Golden State to purchase a home. California’s median home price has surged to over $900,000, pricing out many middle-class families. Newsom’s policies have also increased taxes and regulatory burdens on businesses.

“Presumably” is doing an awful lot of work in that second graf.

Posted at 7:32 am by Stephen Green 24

WHY WAS THE NONPROFIT DANA FARBER CANCER INSTITUTE PARTICIPATING IN THE ANTI-TRUMP “NO KINGS” MARCH IN BOSTON?

Posted at 7:30 am by Glenn Reynolds 39

YOU CAN’T TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THEM FOR A MINUTE:

Posted at 7:18 am by Glenn Reynolds 70

THE ARMY OF DAVIDS COMES THROUGH:

UPDATE: Don Surber: Trump 53, Media 31. This weekend’s reporting shows why the media is not trusted.

Posted at 7:12 am by Glenn Reynolds 9