The ‘hot’ March jobsreport released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics is not as positive as the Bidengovernment and corporate media are billing. It actually shows that in the past 12 months, the U.S. economy has seen the number of full-time jobs decline by 1.3 million while adding 1.09 million part-time positions.
March’s total non-farm payroll employment rose, with 303,000 jobs added to the economy last month. However, the monthly change in full-time employment decreased by 6,000, while part-time employment added 691,000 jobs.
GOVERNMENT AND PART-TIME JOBS.
One of the areas that did see full-time job growth was public sector employment. March saw an increase of 71,000 government jobs — outpacing the prior 12-month average of 54,000. Other sectors that added jobs last month — most known for their reliance on part-time employment — were the construction industry (39,000), leisure and hospitality (49,000), and retail (+18,000). The healthcare industry also saw significant growth, with 72,000 jobs added. However, again, this growth appears to be in areas of the industry reliant on part-time workers, including outpatient care (28,000), hospitals (27,000), and residential care facilities (18,000).
‘THEY’RE CRAPPY JOBS’.
The trend of adding part-time employment while losing full-time jobs has been ongoing for over a year now. This is likely what underpins voter anxiety about the U.S. economy. The National Pulse has previously reported that most jobs gained since President Joe Biden took office have been fueled by migrant labor.
On Wednesday, former Biden White House Chief of Staff, Ron Klain, acknowledged the disconnect between the Biden government’s claims regarding the U.S. economy and how American voters feel about it. “I understand that people say, hey, I’m glad you have all these good things going on in the economy, I’m glad that there are jobs,” Klain said in an interview with MSNBC, adding: “But people want to see that their own personal pocketbook is better off.”
A similar sentiment was expressed by former Obama White House advisor Van Jones in January regarding the job ‘growth’ in the Black community. “People keep telling me, ‘You’ve got great employment numbers in the Black community, and aren’t you happy?’ I’m like, yeah, but they’re crappy jobs,” Jones said. Unemployment among Black Americans rose in March a whole percentage point to 6.4 percent — a near two-year high.
New month, same story: we're losing full-time jobs and only adding part-time work: pic.twitter.com/09MLTkdxlU
The 'hot' March jobs report released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics is not as positive as the Bidengovernment and corporate media are billing. It actually shows that in the past 12 months, the U.S. economy has seen the number of full-time jobs decline by 1.3 million while adding 1.09 million part-time positions.
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The impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is set to move to the U.S. Senate next month for the trial phase when members of the chamber will decide whether to acquit or remove the Biden government official. This week, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) announced he would transmit the articles of impeachment to the upper legislative chamber on April 10, setting the stage for Mayorkas’s trial to begin when the Senate returns from its Easter break. In response, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said Senators will be sworn in and the trial will begin on April 11.
HOW SENATE TRIALS WORK.
Senate Democrats, who control the chamber’s majority, are unlikely to break rank and provide the votes to reach the two-thirds threshold needed to convict and remove President Joe Biden’s Homeland Security Secretary. They may, however, be unable to dismiss the charges outright. If Sen. Schumer is unable to dispense with the charges against Mayorkas quickly, he will likely use his discretionary powers to avoid holding a full trial, which could drag out for weeks.
Under Rule XI, for example, the House impeachment managers — who act as prosecutors — would present their case to an appointed committee of Senators from both parties rather than the full Senate itself. After concluding their investigation of the evidence and charges, the committee members would produce a transcript of their hearings and make a recommendation to the full Senate.
This trial-by-committee process has only been used four times since its inception in 1934. Once in 1986 for the impeachment of U.S. District Court Judge Harry E. Claiborne; twice in 1989 for judges Alcee Hastings and Walter Nixon, Jr.; and in 2010 for U.S. District Court Judge G. Thomas Porteous, Jr. All four impeachment trials resulted in removal from office.
Whether the Senate chooses to hold a full trial or use a Rule XI committee is unlikely to have much impact on the final outcome of the Mayorkas impeachment. Sen. Schumer has made it clear he believes the House articles of impeachment are a “sham” and argued on Thursday that “House Republicans failed to present any evidence of anything resembling an impeachable offense.”
FOREGONE CONCLUSION?
Schumer’s efforts to expedite the Senate trial are likely to be aided by some Senate Republicans who view the impeachment as a futile distraction. “It’ll be dead on arrival when it comes over,” Sen. James Lankford said after the House voted to impeach Mayorkas in February. He added that regardless of whether Mayorkas is removed from office, the Biden government’s lack of border enforcement would remain unchanged. Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) called the articles the “dumbest exercise and use of time.”
Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Mike Lee (R-UT), on the other hand, have been meeting with the Senate Parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, to head off any attempt by Senate Democrats to merely hold a majority vote to dismiss the charges against Mayorkas. In late February, the two conservative Republicans urgedoutgoing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to clarify the Republican leadership position and ensure a full trial is held. Several days later, the Republican leader backed holding a full trial, telling the press it “would be the best way to go forward.”
Even if McConnell and Republican Senate leadership whip members against a vote to dismiss the charges, it is unlikely they could prevent the Senate Democrats from holding an expedited trial by establishing a Rule XI committee. And with conviction and removal requiring an affirmative vote of two-thirds of the Senate, it is even more unlikely that the divided Senate Republicans can mount an effort to push their Democrat colleagues into a vote to oust Secretary Mayorkas.
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The impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is set to move to the U.S. Senate next month for the trial phase when members of the chamber will decide whether to acquit or remove the Biden government official. This week, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) announced he would transmit the articles of impeachment to the upper legislative chamber on April 10, setting the stage for Mayorkas’s trial to begin when the Senate returns from its Easter break. In response, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said Senators will be sworn in and the trial will begin on April 11.
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It’s extraordinary to think that even against this backdrop, a supposed officer of the government charged with securing the nation’s border and literally doing the opposite on purpose is unlikely to be impeached by the U
It’s extraordinary to think that even against this backdrop, a supposed officer of the government charged with securing the nation’s border and literally doing the opposite on purpose is unlikely to be impeached by the U show more
Joe Biden’s White House strategist and communications chief Anita Dunn has praised the bloodbath hoax progenitors ‘MeidasTouch’ describing them as the “front lines” of the fight against President Donald J. Trump and his re-election efforts. Earlier this week, The National Pulse announced a full investigative focus on the shady ‘MeidasTouch Network,’ which began as a Democrat PAC funded by E. Jean Carroll and Nikki Haley backer Reid Hoffman. You can support our work by joining, here.
“We need to be creative and move fast to contrast the President’s optimistic agenda for the future with the extreme agenda of Republican officials who want to take us back in time,” Dunn said in a comment to the Semafor website. “Aaron, Ron, and many others are on the front lines of making sure the American people know the truth of what is at stake,” she added.
Aaron is Aaron Rupar, a long-time hoaxster posing as a journalist on social media. Rupar’s work has been parodied in Urban Dictionary and has even been leveraged by the Chinese Communist Party to undermine U.S. law enforcement. This didn’t stop him being lauded by Joe Biden’s White House. Rupar and Ron Filipowski were even invited to a special preview of the State of the Union address, where they hobnobbed with Dunn alongside Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff.
Filipowski is the “Editor in Chief” of the MeidasTouch Network, founded by the brothers Ben, Brett, and Jordy. He’s also a “low-profile criminal defense attorney” who spends much of his time tweeting hoaxes like his colleague, the anonymized “Acyn” on X/Twitter. Acyn was the original progenitor of the bloodbath hoax, which even left-wingers admitted was a fraud on the American public.
Rupar admitted to Semafor that Acyn called Trump’s Ohio speech “kind of boring” and singled out the bloodbath line as a means by which to peddle content.
“The problem that he ran into with the ‘bloodbath’ thing was that he gave all of these networks a very easy headline and frame,” Rupar said.
MeidasTouch, Filipowski admits, is an out-and-out extension of the Biden campaign operation.
“The Meidas guys, as a team, said: We are going to do this to Trump,” Filipkowski said. “We are going to hit every gaffe, every mispronunciation, every slurred word, every mispronounced name, every time he mixes up a name. We’re going to clip that and we’re going to put it out and we’re going to put it in montages. No one else was doing that. Before last August, you can’t find a mainstream media story about Trump mispronouncing and slurring words. They weren’t out there.”
MeidasTouch staffers have used the word “bloodbath” several times in their reporting. However, simply pointing to their hypocrisy will scarcely do the job of exposing such a group. That’s why The National Pulse is committed to investigating the founders, their staff, and their Epstein-linked operation. Click here to join us.
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Joe Biden's White House strategist and communications chief Anita Dunn has praised the bloodbath hoax progenitors 'MeidasTouch' describing them as the "front lines" of the fight against President Donald J. Trump and his re-election efforts. Earlier this week, The National Pulse announced a full investigative focus on the shady 'MeidasTouch Network,' which began as a Democrat PAC funded by E. Jean Carroll and Nikki Haley backer Reid Hoffman. You can support our work by joining, here.show more
The Ukraine and U.S. Border supplemental funding deal — widely reported by the corporate media as ‘imminent’ — doesn’t really exist. Instead, the few details appearing in the media have come in the form of leaks from Senators regarding what has been alluded to in meetings with their colleagues and the review of draft text that only exists on disparate word documents controlled by the negotiators.
What has been made public over the past several weeks has caused a great deal of concern and consternation among rank-and-file Senate Republicans as well as voters across the country. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden has continued to allow the illegal immigrantinvasion at the southern border to continue unabated.
Despite negotiators insinuating a bill existed as early as January 13th, Democrat and Republican Senate leadership have yet to produce any actual legislative text for their colleagues to review. Over two weeks ago, Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) posted on X:
I encourage people to read the border security bill before they judge the border security bill. I also advise people not to believe everything you read on the internet….
While Lankford’s post would make sense if legislative text existed, the fact is there was no text for Senators to review on January 13th — and that remains the case today. The plea from the Oklahoma Republican harkened back to an infamous moment during the Obamacare debate when former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said: “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.”
During a Senate Republican Conference meeting last week, The National Pulse was told that Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) lashed out at his Republican Senate colleagues, calling their attacks on the deal “disingenuous.” He argued the only reason his colleagues wanted to see draft text was so they could use it to attack the negotiations. Senators were left dumbfounded by Sen. Tillis’s claims — which further confirmed to opponents that they were being sold a bad deal by leadership.
As to the accusation that opponents of the ‘supposed’ agreement are peddling “lies,” at least one Senator confronted leadership aides who conceded that the provisions reported by Fox News on January 13th were a part of the deal. They did, however, insist other — unreported — provisions were a ‘win’ for conservatives but refused to share those with the Senate Republican Conference.
About Those ‘Other’ Provisions
Since January 13th, more details regarding the Border Deal component of the Senate funding supplemental have trickled out. What was supposed to be legislation addressing border security to curb the ongoing illegal immigrationcrisis at the U.S. southern border is instead a jobs program that will benefit major donors to both parties — especially those on Wall Street.
The deal sets in place a baseline number of illegal immigrants who can — in essence — cross into the U.S. each week before triggering a shutdown of the border. While some corporate news outlets have claimed these border crossers would not be released into the U.S., the lax asylum claim provisions indicate that in reality most will not be sent home. Instead, it appears these individuals will receive some form of work permit and be allowed to remain in the U.S. and fed into a system of cheap, immigrant labor.
It is believed that the deal does little to nothing to curb President Joe Biden’s legally dubious use of parole powers – granting what is essentially blanket amnesty to large swaths of immigrants who cross the border illegally. The Biden parole policy has received praise from numerous business interests and pro-open borders political organizations like the CATO Institute.
The President Can Already Shut Down The Border And The ‘Deal’ Could Undermine That
The most concerning provision believed to be in the Senate border deal is the so-called ‘border shutdown trigger.’ It has been widely reported the agreement negotiated by Sen. Lankford contains a provision that supposedly shuts down the U.S. border if encounters reach an average of 5,000 per day over a week or if they reach 8,500 in a single day. Once that threshold is reached, it appears the President’s authority to close the border under section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) would take effect.
Section 212(f) gives the President broad authority to limit access to the United States for certain immigrant groups or all immigrants if it is deemed “detrimental to the interests of the United States.” This authority was used on several occasions by former President Donald Trump and has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court after multiple challenges.
Under the Senate border deal, however, several Senators told The National Pulse that it appears the border shutdown provisions would either alter 212(f) presidential authority or would provide federal courts with the grounds to roll back the shutdown power. The changes would in effect limit future presidential power to close the border — a fact that is conspicuously absent from the talking points being pushed by Senate leaders.
Republican opponents of the so-called border deal have consistentlypointedout that President Biden already has the authority to close the border under 212(f) should he so choose.
Is It Even A Deal If Most Congressional Republicans Oppose It?
Earlier this week, Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) admitted it will be likely several more days — probably early next week — before any actual legislative text on the Ukraine and U.S. Border supplemental funding bill is ready for review. Despite no bill yet existing, Senate leaders on both sides of the aisle continue to insist Senators fall in line and support the effort.
Yesterday, however, a resolution in the Republican Conference presented by Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) overwhelmingly passed among his colleagues which demands Senators be given two to three weeks to review and debate the bill. The National Pulse is told by a source present at the Conference meeting that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) voted against the measure. Without the backing of leadership, it remains likely that Senators Schumer and McConnell will attempt to hastily move the bill through the Senate.
If the supplemental funding bill were to pass — a prospect that is not certain at the moment — it would face fierce opposition in the House. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has repeatedly said the bill is “dead on arrival” in the House of Representatives.
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The Ukraine and U.S. Border supplemental funding deal — widely reported by the corporate media as 'imminent' — doesn't really exist. Instead, the few details appearing in the media have come in the form of leaks from Senators regarding what has been alluded to in meetings with their colleagues and the review of draft text that only exists on disparate word documents controlled by the negotiators.
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A shocking new report has claimed that nearly 520,000 rapes resulted in 64,565 pregnancies across 14 states with abortion bans. However, the research, published in the JAMA Internal Medicine journal and promotedheavily by NBC News, appears to be a work of fiction created by Planned Parenthood abortionist and activist Samuel L. Dickman.
The report itself admits to being entirely based on conjecture, stating: “Because to our knowledge no recent reliable state-level data on completed vaginal rapes (forced and/or drug/alcohol–facilitated vaginal penetration) are available, we analyzed multiple data sources to estimate reported and unreported rapes in states with total abortion bans… We also estimated the number of resulting pregnancies based on findings from prior research on rape-related pregnancy rates.”
While claiming a staggering 520,000 rapes, the study’s authors admit this is effectively a guess, extrapolating from a 2016/17 self-reported Centers for Disease Control (CDC) study into National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS).
In Texas, the report estimated that 26,313 Texas women became pregnant over the past year. Data, however, suggests there were 16,510 rapes in total in the state in one year, let alone pregnancies resulting from rape. With Texas’s abortion ban coming into effect on July 24, 2022, the report’s authors would have the public believe that the number of rapes in Texas effectively doubled since 2020, and that every one of them resulted in a pregnancy.
The team that authored the report was headed by Samuel L. Dickman, the medical director of Planned Parenthood Montana and an outspoken abortion activist. In a June 2023 oped, Dickman wrote that “politicians [who have implemented abortion bans] have taken away patients’ freedom to choose their own medical care” and that “it will take all of us to address this public health crisis and restore, protect and expand abortion access for future generations.”
A shocking new report has claimed that nearly 520,000 rapes resulted in 64,565 pregnancies across 14 states with abortion bans. However, the research, published in the JAMA Internal Medicine journal and promotedheavily by NBC News, appears to be a work of fiction created by Planned Parenthood abortionist and activist Samuel L. Dickman.
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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has dropped out of the Republican presidential primary, backing down after almost a year-long misadventure that began before President Trump’s announcement speech at Mar-A-Lago in November 2022.
DeSantis issued an X (formerly Twitter) statement on Sunday, endorsing Donald Trump and stating that he was proud of his campaign.
NEVER BACK DOWN.
DeSantis’s presidential aspirations were known to staff and those close to him for years before his glitched Twitter/X announcement speech with Elon Musk on May 24th, 2023. Indeed, what seemed to the uninformed like an unprovoked attack from Trump in November 2022 was in reality the culmination of both DeSantis staff and donors indicating to the press that as soon as the Florida Governor could persuade his state’s legislature to change the law so he could run while remaining Governor, he would enter the race. In one interview with Fox News, DeSantis and his wife Jill ‘Casey’ admitted to deciding to primary Trump as far back as November 2020.
Meanwhile, Ron embarked on a ludicrous “book tour” for a publication that scarcely sold any copies. He claimed to be advertising “the Florida model,” even tripping overseas, where he was labeled boring and uncharismatic. During that time, he left Jeanette Nunez – a woman who once described Donald Trump as the “KKK” – in charge of the Sunshine State.
In the early days, Trump’s barbs against DeSantis were condemned by most “conservative” talking heads, as well as many who professed to still be in the Trump camp, though later it would emerge they were playing both sides. The likes of Steve Cortes, John Cardillo, Matthew Tyrmand, Pedro Gonzales, Clay Travis, Tomi Lahren, and others would secretly back DeSantis. At the same time, the Florida Governor hired the axis of incompetence: Jeff Roe, Adam Laxalt, and Christina Pushaw to attack MAGA Republicans and the former President.
DeSantis’s disingenuous strategy was spotted early by this outlet, The National Pulse, which endorsed Trump as far back as November 2022 and shone a spotlight on those who were being dishonest about their choices early on. The duplicity would extend to how DeSantis ran his entire campaign, allowing his Super PAC, ‘Never Back Down,’ to effectively run most of the logistics, a move that was both legally sketchy and politically retarded.
‘JUST WAIT UNTIL…’
Following his botched launch, DeSantis’s online operation – which the candidate himself held at arm’s length – would undertake a campaign to try to “out-meme” MAGA Republicans on the internet, running head first into the buzzsaw of the “Dilley Meme Team” and others, who ritualistically humiliated DeSantis and his surrogates online. The embarrassment bled into the campaign’s day-to-day operations, which led Team Ron to hurriedly deploy an army of bot accounts to stem the bleeding. It didn’t work.
Instead, pro-DeSantis operatives attempted to kick the can down the road. “Just wait until he announces,” it began. Then, “just wait until he debates,” and finally, “just wait until Iowa.” Then Iowa came, and DeSantis was once again humbled by President Trump and his team, who maintained a remarkable discipline through 2023 in the face of many political indictments.
WHAT WENT WRONG.
There are far more nuances to DeSantis’s failure than a simple political campaign obituary can explore. But a few include:
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has dropped out of the Republican presidential primary, backing down after almost a year-long misadventure that began before President Trump's announcement speech at Mar-A-Lago in November 2022.
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The United States and the United Kingdom have announced the start of a joint military operation against Yemen’s Houthi rebel group. For several months, the Islamist rebel group that controls large swaths of Yemeni territory has engaged in a campaign of harassment and terror against international shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. This campaign is allegedly at the behest of their primary state backer, the Islamic Republic of Iran.
As of Thursday, the Yemeni-based Houthis have carried out at least 27 attacks on international shipping off the shores of the nation –situated at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula.
An attempt last month by U.S. President Joe Biden to organize an international response fell apart after European partners became frustrated with the slow response from the U.S. military and decided to undertake escort missions for international shipping on their own.
Yemen, in red.
With Houthi attacks continuing to threaten U.S. military assets in the region as well as wreaking havoc with global supply chains, the U.S. and U.K. may find themselves increasingly dragged into both the long-running Yemeni civil war and a broader regional conflict which has pitted Israel and Saudi Arabia, respectively, against Iran and its regional proxies in Gaza, Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen.
So Who Are The Houthis?
For most of its short history, the Houthi rebel movement was a minor nuisance to the Yemeni government. That changed in 2011 when the Houthis took part in the broader Yemeni revolution – though they later rejected a governing deal proposed by Yemen’s National Dialogue Conference. In 2014, rebel groups’ numbers swelled, and they were able to seize control of the country’s capital.
An uneasy political alliance struck between the rebels and former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh aided the swift takeover of much of Yemen by the Houthi rebels. A decade before its rise to power, the rebel group had been one of the chief opposition moments against Saleh. In 2004, the Yemeni military under the Saleh government had killed the rebel group’s founder Hussein al-Houthi after they claimed he resisted arrest. The group is now primarily under the leadership of Hussein al-Houthi’s brother, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi.
Relations between the Houthis and Saleh’s political faction deteriorated, with Yemen plunged into civil war. Saudi Arabia backed a series of pro-Saudi leaders against the Iranian-backed Houthis, and in 2017, the Houthi rebels assassinated former President Saleh, after accusing him of treason. There are conflicting reports as to whether Saleh was shot by a Houthi sniper while attempting to flee his compound in a vehicle or if rebels inside the compound itself executed him.
Also known as Ansar Allah, or ‘Supporters of Allah’, the movement’s official slogan (below), reads:
Allah is the Greatest Death to America Death to Israel A Curse Upon the Jews Victory to Islam
The Houthis are mainly Zaidi Shia Muslims, who believe in an activist and political interpretation of Islam.
It’s Actually A Regional Proxy War.
The Houthi rebels began in the 1990s as a Zaidi Shia Islamist revival movement – initially focused on restoring Zaidi cultural and religious practices. Their Shia Islam affiliation and opposition to Yemen’s Sunni majority naturally aligned the group with the interests of the Shia-dominated Islamic Republic of Iran. Under Iran’s influence, the Zaidi revival movement was radicalized, abandoning a more academic pursuit of cultural revival and opting instead to instill their religious and cultural ideology through conflict.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, along with leaders of Lebanon’s Hezbollah terrorist group (also an Iranian proxy), provided training and aid to the Houthis – accelerating their transformation into a more aggressive rebel faction. In 2014, a series of street protests escalated into a full-blown battle between the Houthi rebels and the Yemeni military. After a few days, the Houthis had routed the Yemeni forces and were able to seize the country’s capital – kicking off a decade-long civil war.
Saudi Arabia, Yemen’s northern neighbor and the regional center of Sunni Muslim political power, quickly intervened in an attempt to counter Iranian influence. The influx of weapons for various factions – provided by Iran and Saudi Arabia – escalated the conflict from a civil war to a regional proxy war.
By 2015, the Saudi-recognized government under Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi had moved the Yemeni capital from Houthi-controlled Sanaʽa to Aden. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia itself, along with regional backers and logistical support from the U.S. under President Obama, launched a subsequent air and ground campaign aimed at ending Houthi territorial control in Yemen.
In 2018, President Donald Trump vetoed an attempt by Congress to end U.S. support for Saudi Arabia’s efforts in Yemen. After assuming office in 2021, however, President Joe Biden moved to freeze U.S. military sales to Saudi Arabia – effectively ending U.S. involvement in the conflict. A truce was established in March of 2022, freezing the conflict temporarily.
Houthis Escalate After October 7th Hamas Attacks.
On October 7th, 2023, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Hamas terror organization in Gaza – allied with the Houthis since 2021 – launched a terror attack on Israel, killing over a thousand civilians and soldiers, and taking several hundred people hostage. Israel swiftly responded with a military assault on Gaza to eliminate Hamas. Iran, which had pledged to cease arming the Houthi rebels in 2022, reversed course and began shipping arms to Yemen within days of Israel moving against Hamas – also an Iranian proxy.
Houthi insurgents initially focused their efforts against Israel – using Iranian-supplied missiles to target the Jewish state. Those missiles, however, were either intercepted by the Israeli Iron Dome defense system, U.S. military assets in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, or by Saudi-based land-to-air defense systems. Unable to strike Israel directly, the Houthis instead opted to attempt strikes on U.S. naval assets off the Yemeni coast, as well as international shipping moving through the same waters.
Since late October 2023, Houthis have used a combination of missiles, speed boats, helicopters, and drones to launch attacks against container ships, oil tankers, and U.S. naval vessels in both the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The campaign of terror and piracy forced a high volume of international shipping to divert from the critical Suez Canal and Red Sea routes – instead having to sail around the African continent to avoid the Houthi attacks.
Escalation.
The renewed conflict in Yemen has the potential to explode into a broader regional war, especially as Israel’s military action against Hamas drags on. Many of the senior leaders of the Houthi rebels were educated in Islamic ideology by Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah – giving the Lebanon-based terrorist leader a degree of personal investment in the success of the Houthis.
Iran, for its part, has promised retaliation for any strikes against the Houthi rebels. The Islamic Republic could use its proxies in Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq to target both Israeli and U.S. military assets in response to the joint U.S.-U.K. military operation in Yemen.
Saudi Arabia poses another potential point of escalation. While we do not yet know the scale and scope of the U.S.-U.K. military operation, it is believed targets in Yemen will include critical infrastructure used by the Houthis including ammunition depots, drone facilities, missile sites, air bases, and air defense installations. With the Houthi rebels military capabilities likely being crippled by the Western powers, Saudi Arabia may be unable to pass up the opportunity to end the Houthi presence in Yemen entirely. Such a move could not be ignored by Iran – and could risk a large-scale regional war.
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The United States and the United Kingdom have announced the start of a joint military operation against Yemen's Houthi rebel group. For several months, the Islamist rebel group that controls large swaths of Yemeni territory has engaged in a campaign of harassment and terror against international shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. This campaign is allegedly at the behest of their primary state backer, the Islamic Republic of Iran.
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Nearly half the global population – expected to hit 8 billion people total today, January 1st – will head to the polls at some point over the coming year. At least sixty-four countries, and the European Union will hold elections – with some expected to result in tectonic political shifts.
The National Pulse has compiled a comprehensive list of countries expected to hold elections by region and will be providing further insight as each election grows nearer.
Europe.
European Union (EU): The 27 EU member states, comprising 448 million people, will hold elections for the European Parliament from June 6th to the 9th.
The United Kingdom (UK): A general parliamentary election for the House of Commons is expected to be held at some point in 2024. The general election must be held before 28 January 2025 and Parliament itself is set to be dissolved no later than December 17th, 2024.
Ukraine: A presidential election is scheduled for March 31st, however the ongoing conflict with Russia and the declared state of martial law may prevent the election from happening.
Romania: The Eastern European nation is expected to hold elections for its Presidency, Senate, and Chamber of Deputies at some point between November and December 2024.
Belgium: On June 9th, Belgians will head to the polls to elect a new Chamber of Representatives. The election could potentially result in the dissolution of the country along linguistic and cultural lines.
Czech Republic: An election to choose a new Czech Senate will held at a to-be-determined date next year.
Portugal: A snap legislative election will occur in Portugal on March 10th after the fall of the socialist government. A tight race is expected between the country’s socialists and right-wing populists.
Belarus: The Russian-allied state will hold elections for its Chamber of Representatives on February 25th.
Austria: The Germanic nation is expected to hold elections for the National Council – its lower house of parliament – on September 29th. Polling shows the right-populist FPÖ is positioned to win its first Austrian legislative and form a government. The Communist Party of Austria has also seen a degree of increased popularity.
Slovakia: An election for the President of Slovakia will be held at some point in 2024.
Finland: One of the earlier elections of 2024, citizens of Finland will elect a new president on January 28th, 2024.
Croatia: The Balkan nation will likely hold two elections. A presidential contest is expected in December of 2024 while it is not yet known when the country will hold its parliamentary elections.
Republic of Moldova: A presidential election is expected in November.
Lithuania: The Baltic state will hold a presidential election on May 12th with parliamentary elections on October 13th.
North Macedonia: A presidential election will be held on April 24th while its parliamentary election will occur on May 8th.
Iceland: The North Atlantic island nation will hold a presidential election on June 1st.
San Marino: The European micro-state is expected to hold elections for the Grand and General Council at some point in December.
Georgia: Parliamentary elections will be held on October 26th. The presidential election date has yet-to-be-determined.
Asia and Oceana.
India: The worlds largest democracy, with 1.44 billion people, is expected to hold elections for its Lok Sabha (House of the People) – the lower house of the Indian parliament – at some point in April or May of 2024. Political parties comprising the nationalist and populist Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s National Democratic Alliance hold a narrow lead in polls.
Indonesia: The South East Asian island nation of 279 million people will hold a general election on February 14th with the Presidency, Regional Representative Council, and House of Representatives all on the ballot. The secular nationalist and populist Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle has lead in the legislative polls with the right-wing populist Gerindra Party close behind.
Pakistan: The Muslim state will hold elections for its National Assembly on February 8th. Pakistan has experienced an ongoing political crisis and mass demonstrations over the past year after the arrest of its former Prime Minister Imran Khan who was ousted from power by a no-confidence vote in 2022.
Bangladesh: An election for the National Parliament will be held on January 7th.
Russian Federation: From March 15th to 17th Russians will head to the polls to vote for the nation’s president. Vladimir Putin, the incumbent president, is expected to win re-election.
Uzbekistan: The Central Asian state is expected to hold elections for the Legislative Chamber in October, but they can occur as late as December of 2024.
North Korea: On April 10th the Communist nation lead by dictator Kim Jong-un will hold ‘elections’ for its Supreme People’s Assembly. An alliance of communist political parties under the Democratic Front for the Reunification of Korea has won all seats in the legislative assembly since 1948.
South Korea: Elections for the National Assembly will be held on April 10th.
Taiwan: A critical presidential and legislative election will be decided on January 13th, 2024. The current government lead by the liberal Democratic Progressive Party faces insurgent campaigns from the nationalist Kuomintang and the populist Taiwan People’s Party. The outcome could have a significant impact on China’s stance towards Taiwan and the United States.
Cambodia: Senate elections will be held on February 25th.
Sri Lanka: Presidential and parliamentary elections are expected to be called at some point in 2024.
Mongolia: Elections for the State Great Khural – the country’s unicameral legislature – are expected to be held in June.
Bhutan: An election for the country’s National Assembly will be held on January 9th.
Solomon Islands: A general election for the National Parliament is expected in April of 2024.
Maldives: Between March and May, a general election for the country’s legislature is expected to be held.
Kiribati: Elections for the country’s Presidency and House of Assembly are expected to be held in 2024.
Palau: A general election for the Presidency, Senate, and House of Delegates will be held on November 12th.
Tuvalu: Parliamentary elections will be hold on January 26th.
Middle East.
Syrian Arab Republic: Despite political instability and an ongoing civil war, it is expected Syria will hold elections for the People’s Assembly at some point in 2024.
Islamic Republic of Iran: Both the Islamic Consultative Assembly and the Assembly of Experts will be up for election on March 1st.
Azerbaijan: The Islamic country will elect a president on February 7th.
Jordan: The country’s elections for House of Representatives are expected to be held in November 2024.
Africa.
South Africa: National Assembly elections are expected to be held between May and August of 2024. The African National Congress continues to poll at or close to 50-percent.
Algeria: A presidential election is expected in December of 2024.
Ghana: Presidential and parliamentary elections will be held on December 7th, 2024.
Mozambique: Presidential and legislative elections will be held on October 9th.
Madagascar: Elections for the National Assembly are due to happen before May.
Mali: The military junta in control of the country has postponed a February presidential election indefinitely with only vague reasons given as to why.
Chad: A presidential election is expected in October.
Senegal: A presidential election will be held on February 25th.
Rwanda: Elections for the Presidency and Chamber of Deputies will happen on July 15th.
Tunisia: A presidential election is expected to be held at some point in the fall of 2024.
South Sudan: Presidential and legislative elections are expected to be held in December of 2024.
Togo: Legislative elections are expected to be held in early 2024.
Mauritania: A presidential election will occur on June 22nd.
Botswana: An election for the National Assembly is expected in October.
Namibia: Presidential and legislative elections will be held at some point in 2024.
Guinea Bissau: A presidential election is slated to occur at a to-be-decided point in 2024.
Mauritius: Legislative elections are expected to be held in 2024.
Comoros: A presidential election will be held on January 14th.
The Americas.
The United States of America (USA): Elections for President, the House of Representatives, and the Senate – along with state and local races – will be held on November 5th. Former President Donald Trump, the front-runner for the Republican nomination, appears set for a rematch against the Democrat incumbent President Joe Biden.
Mexico: Presidential and legislative elections will be held on June 2nd. Current President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is term-limited. Claudia Sheinbaum of the left-wing National Regeneration Movement is expected to face-off against Xóchitl Gálvez of the centrist National Action Party.
Venezuela: A presidential ‘election’ could possibly be held in December of 2024. The South American nation’s dictator Nicolás Maduro is ‘running’ for ‘re-election’.
Dominican Republican: The Caribbean island nation will hold presidential and legislative elections on May 19th.
El Salvador: The Central American state will hold presidential and legislative elections on February 4th. Incumbent President Nayib Bukele is running for re-election after the country’s supreme court ruled he would not have to wait 10-years between terms in office.
Panama: Presidential and legislative elections will be held on May 5th.
Uruguay: Presidential and legislative elections will be held on October 27th.
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Nearly half the global population – expected to hit 8 billion people total today, January 1st – will head to the polls at some point over the coming year. At least sixty-four countries, and the European Union will hold elections – with some expected to result in tectonic political shifts.
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Nationalist and populist political parties will enter 2024 hoping for a bumper election year. Over the course of the year, 40 national elections will occur, representing 41 percent of the global population, and 42 percent of global gross domestic product.
If 2016 seemed like a populist-nationalist year to remember, 2024 could easily surpass it. Here are the most critical elections to watch for in 2024:
European Parliament: June 6-9, 2024
The European Union’s 27 member states will head to the polls in early June, choosing their representation at the supranational, globalist European Parliament. Typically already an election which attracts massive “protest votes,” Europe’s worsening migrant crisis will naturally push voters to the right, a concern already top of mind for European Union (EU) apparatchiks like Josep Borrell.
Recent victories for nationalist and populist parties in Italy, Finland, the Netherlands, and Sweden also underscore a snowballing backlash against European elites over their embrace of open borders. The Identity and Democracy group, a bloc of eurosceptic and nationalist parties from 10 different European nations, appears poised to challenge the Liberals for position as the third largest voting block in the European Parliament. This is no small feat, given how heavily the deck is stacked against them by European Parliamentary authorities.
Continued economic stagnation, discontent over the accelerating migrant crisis, persistent warmongering, and general disenfranchisement could manifest a new, tectonic shift in European Union politics.
America, November 5, 2024.
Former President Donald Trump continues to pull ahead of Democrat incumbent Joe Biden. Much like Europe, the crisis at the U.S. southern border is fueling a voter backlash against Democrats nationally. Alongside a weak economy throughout 2023/24, as well as soaring crime and intensifying culture wars, America is evidently looking for a change. Biden’s approval ratings are lower than Trump’s at the same point in his first term, and nearly eight in 10 Americans say the country is on the wrong track.
Early polling also indicates Trump leads Biden in all but one of the critical 2024 swing states, with Biden yet to faces the additional headwinds from an advancing Congressional impeachment inquiry into his abuses of office and public corruption. Also of great concern for the 81-year old Democrat is growing discontent over the Ukraine-Russia war, the Israel-Hamas War, and indeed his popularity amongst minority voters.
In the hopes of heading off a Trump victory in 2024, the Biden regime has launched an unprecedentedlaw-farecampaign against the near-certain Republican nominee. If elected, Trump has indicated his intent to use his second term to kneecap America’s “deep state” – using tools like the Schedule F designation to remove career federal bureaucrats.
One critical issue facing the U.S. electorate, however, is the integrity of the nation’s ballot processes. Long viewed as the “international observers”, the U.S. has fallen behind other nations in prioritizing election integrity, paper ballots, same day voting, and same day counting. Instead, America’s elections are plagued by weeks of mail-in voting, machine errors, and state-level denialism of such problems. These issues have routinely been exploited, predominantly by the political left, at both a local and national level.
The United Kingdom (by Jan 2025).
Though it will likely occur in 2024, the manner in which the UK holds its elections is somewhat quirky, with the nation having tried the idea of a “fixed term Parliament” before reverting to a looser system whereby the Prime Minister can advise the Monarch to dissolve parliament at any point within a five year period.
Polls indicate the governing “Conservative” Party is likely to lose its functioning majority in Parliament to the Labour Party, which hasn’t been in power since the end of the war-hungry Blair/Brown regime of 1997-2010.
Populists enjoyed great influence in British politics through much of the Conservatives’ years in office, with the Damoclean sword of Nigel Farage’s UK Independence Party (UKIP) forcing then-Prime Minister David Cameron to offer a referendum on leaving the EU – a plebiscite which was won by a 52-48 margin. Farage then went on to set up the Brexit Party, to ensure Britain actually left the EU.
Now reconstituted as the Reform Party, the organization has been a victim of its own success, sinking in the polls, and struggling to cut through outside the viewership of the less-left-wing ‘GB News’ channel.
The Conservatives, meanwhile, have squandered their majority, allowing the public tax burden to increase, boosting mass immigration, and supporting more wars around the world.
Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party is likely to further promote mass migration, climate change alarmism, and tax-hiking policies, a notion which has led Farage to seriously consider a return to frontline politics in order to stave off the country’s further decline.
Belgium Might Disappear.
The European Parliament elections will be closely followed by a federal election in Belgium, which French wartime leader Charles De Gaulle disparaged as “a country invented by the British to annoy the French.” The nation’s status as the EU institutions’ main center of power grants it outsized importance – and the 2024 elections could set it on a path to breaking up altogether.
Belgium is divided between French-speaking Wallonia to the south and Dutch-speaking Flanders to the north, with the EU and national capital of Brussels a Francophone enclave inside the latter. The country often goes for long periods without an elected parliament, as rival parties from the two regions struggle to hammer out coalition agreements. In Flanders, the populist Flemish independentist party Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest) is currently prospering at the expense of the establishment right.
Vlaams Belang’s growing appeal is driven by public dissatisfaction over a worsening migrant crisis, in a country already home to notorious no-go zones. Leader Tom Van Grieken has described the Belgian state as a “forced marriage,” and a strong election result could enable him to make good on a pledge to secure an “orderly division” of the country – or, if necessary, unilateral secession.
And So Much More.
With around forty national elections taking place in 2024, nationalist and populist parties will likely be competitive in both national and regional elections in Austria, India, South Korea, Romania, the Czech Republic, Portugal, Slovakia, Finland, Croatia, and further afield.
Taiwan will face a close national election between the liberal Democratic Progressive Party, the nationalist Kuomintang, and the populist Taiwan People’s Party. Russia and Ukraine are poised to face potentially impactful elections too. The National Pulse will be providing further insight as each election grows nearer.
The National Pulse will be here to cover it all. Make sure you have the free app and turn on notifications to stay informed. Will Upton, Jack Montgomery, and Raheem Kassam contributed to this report.
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Nationalist and populist political parties will enter 2024 hoping for a bumper election year. Over the course of the year, 40 national elections will occur, representing 41 percent of the global population, and 42 percent of global gross domestic product.
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While celebrating his victory in the Argentine presidential election, Javier Milei – a self-described anarcho-capitalist – doubled down on his plans to enact radical change within the economy – including pursuing ‘dollarization’. While Argentina’s flamoyant new president has expressed openness to alternative currencies – especially cryptocurrency – his stated plan to overhaul monetary policy is far different than what many libertarians might hope for.
Milei throughout his campaign has emphasized his intent to ‘dollarize‘ Argentina. Dollarization means the South American – facing a nearly 150 percent inflation rate – would abandon its use of the Argentine peso and instead adopt the U.S. dollar as the country’s legal currency. While some Central and South American nations have successfully dollarized their monetary system, no country with an economy the size of Argentina has attempted to undertake the change. Ecuador and Panama are two countries that have dollarized their economies.
The process of dollarization would require Argentina to replace their peso with U.S. dollars, despite the country currently having little in the way of reserves of U.S. currency. To attain the amount of U.S. dollars to successfully undergo the economic transition, Milei would have to sell off state-owned assets, re-privatizing large swaths of the Argentine economy after years of nationalization under Peronist governments. Additionally dollarization would, in practice, disband the Argentine central bank – with monetary policy decision making power instead being handed over to the U.S. Federal Reserve.
Handing over monetary policy decisions to the Fed would place needed limits on the Argentine government’s ability to borrow and spend – instilling fiscal discipline on a nation that has lacked spending constraints for decades. Central and South American countries that have dollarized their economies have shown markedly lower rates of inflation. However, dollarization does not necessarily guarantee against Argentina potentially defaulting on its debt – Ecuador which dollarized in 2000 has defaulted twice since dollar adoption.
One of the greatest hurdles Milei faces in his plan to dollarize the Argentine economy is the $44 billion debt it owes to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Until Argentina is able to fulfill its debt obligations to the IMF has blocked, in effect, the country from global markets – without market access even a fire-sale of state assets would prove difficult. Additionally, the Argentine central bank holds – in essence – negative reserves of foreign currencies, making dollarization even more difficult.
In the 1990s and up to 2001, Argentina attempted a partial dollarization of its economy – the 1991 ‘Convertibility plan’ pegged value of the Argentine peso to the U.S. dollar. While this plan was successful in reining in inflation, Argentina was increasingly forced to turn to sovereign debt to maintain dollar-parity as it ran out of public assets to privatize. The subsequent economic and political crisis triggered an economic depression and large-scale riots in major population centers across the country. Ultimately the political crisis resulted in nearly two-decades of left-wing Peronist rule.
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While celebrating his victory in the Argentine presidential election, Javier Milei – a self-described anarcho-capitalist – doubled down on his plans to enact radical change within the economy – including pursuing 'dollarization'. While Argentina's flamoyant new president has expressed openness to alternative currencies – especially cryptocurrency – his stated plan to overhaul monetary policy is far different than what many libertarians might hope for.
show more
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