The data coming out of Massachusetts confirms exactly what I have been warning about for years. You cannot raise taxes on a shrinking base and expect the system to hold together. According to new IRS migration data, the state lost roughly $4.18 billion in adjusted gross income to other states in 2023, a dramatic increase from about $900 million a decade earlier. This came immediately after the implementation of a 4% surtax on income over $1 million, a policy sold as a way to fund education and infrastructure but which has instead accelerated the exit of high-income earners.
What stands out is not just the number of people leaving, but who is leaving. High earners now account for about 70% of the outbound income, meaning the very group being targeted for revenue is the one walking out the door. That is the fatal flaw in these policies. Governments assume the wealthy are trapped. They are not. Capital is mobile, and when you create an environment that penalizes productivity, investment, and success, it simply relocates.
About half of those leaving Massachusetts are heading to states like Florida and New Hampshire, jurisdictions that impose far lower tax burdens or none at all on income. This is not random movement. This is deliberate. People are voting with their feet, and more importantly, they are taking their income, businesses, and long-term investment potential with them. The idea that you can isolate taxation within state borders without consequence is simply false.
This is part of a broader trend across the United States. High-tax states are experiencing outflows, while low-tax states are absorbing both people and capital. I have said repeatedly that governments do not seem to understand that capital flows are the dominant force, not policy intentions. You can pass whatever legislation you want, but if confidence declines and the environment becomes hostile to wealth creation, the money leaves. It is that simple.
The real danger is what happens next. As the tax base shrinks, governments are forced to extract more from those who remain to maintain spending levels. One analyst put it bluntly: “We are trying to make money on a smaller tax base. It’s going to be harder.” That is the spiral. First, taxes rise. Then capital leaves. Then taxes must rise again to compensate. It becomes a self-reinforcing cycle that ultimately undermines the entire fiscal structure.
Massachusetts is now a case study in what happens when policymakers ignore these dynamics. They are collecting billions in new surtax revenue, yet simultaneously losing billions in taxable income. That is not success. That is cannibalization of the future for short-term gain.
This ties directly into what I have warned about regarding state-level fiscal crises. Governments assume they can control behavior through taxation, but they cannot control confidence. Once people begin to question whether a state is competitive, whether it is worth staying, whether their future is better elsewhere, the shift begins. It does not happen all at once, but once it starts, it is very difficult to reverse.
What Massachusetts is experiencing today is not isolated. It is a warning sign. The same policies being debated in California, New York, and other states will produce the same outcome. Capital does not stay where it is punished. It moves to where it is treated best. That is the fundamental rule governments continue to ignore, and until they understand that, this trend will only
There has been an outpouring of recalls in the USA due to lead contamination in the food supply. Lead showing up in food in the United States is the result of overlapping structural problems that have been building for decades, and the recalls you are seeing now are simply the system reacting after the fact rather than preventing contamination in the first place.
At the core, lead is a naturally occurring heavy metal that exists in soil and water, but human activity has dramatically amplified its presence. The legacy of leaded gasoline, old paint, industrial emissions, and contaminated irrigation systems means that farmland across parts of the country still carries trace levels. Crops like root vegetables, grains, and even fruits can absorb lead directly from soil or water, so even “clean” farming practices cannot fully eliminate exposure.
Then you have the infrastructure problem. Much of the United States still relies on aging water systems, including old lead pipes. When that water is used in food processing or irrigation, it becomes another pathway for contamination. This is not theory, we have already seen this play out in places like Flint, and the same risk exists nationwide on a smaller scale.
Another major factor is imported ingredients. A significant portion of food sold in the U.S. relies on global supply chains where oversight is far weaker. Spices, chocolate, baby food ingredients, and supplements have repeatedly been flagged for elevated lead levels because they are sourced from regions with contaminated soil or less stringent regulation. Once those ingredients enter the U.S. supply chain, they are mixed into finished products that appear safe on the surface.
The recalls themselves happen because of how regulation is structured. Agencies like the FDA do not pre-approve every batch of food. Instead, companies are responsible for their own safety testing, and regulators step in when problems are detected through inspections, whistleblowers, or independent lab testing. That means contamination is often discovered after products are already on shelves.
What has changed recently is not necessarily the level of contamination, but the level of scrutiny. Testing methods are more sensitive, public awareness is higher, and lawsuits are increasing, especially around baby food. That is why you are seeing more recalls. The system is detecting what was always there.
From a broader perspective, this fits into a pattern that governments consistently overlook. They regulate the appearance of safety rather than the underlying infrastructure. You can pass stricter rules, but if the soil is contaminated, the pipes are old, and the supply chain is global and fragmented, the problem does not disappear. It simply surfaces in cycles, much like everything else. There is a growing distrust of the food supply in America. What was once a conspiracy is now generally accepted as a fact: America’s food supply is compromised. When people begin to question the safety of basic necessities like food and water, trust in institutions starts to erode, which is why “FDA Approved” does not equate to “safe for consumption.”
The March 2026 employment report is being celebrated by the press as a “blowout” number, yet once again they are focusing on the headline and ignoring what is actually taking place beneath the surface. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the U.S. economy added 178,000 jobs for the month, far exceeding expectations that were clustered around 60,000, while the unemployment rate ticked down to 4.3%.
The prior month was revised to a loss of 133,000 jobs, meaning what you are seeing is not acceleration but volatility. When you strip away the headline number, the first major warning sign is the collapse in labor force participation. Roughly 396,000 people exited the labor force in March alone, pushing participation below 62%, the lowest level since the pandemic era. This is precisely how governments manipulate unemployment statistics. If people stop looking for work, they are no longer counted as unemployed, so the rate declines even as the underlying economy weakens.
Then you look at wages, which rose only modestly, roughly 0.2% for the month and about 3.5% annually, marking the slowest pace in years. This is critical because it confirms what we have been warning about, this is not inflation driven by demand, this is cost-push inflation driven by war, energy, and policy. When wages stall while prices rise, that is the very definition of stagflation.
The composition of the jobs tells the same story. Healthcare accounted for roughly 76,000 of the gains, largely a rebound from strike activity, while construction and manufacturing added modest numbers. Government employment declined by about 18,000 and financial sectors also contracted, which is a red flag because those are forward-looking industries tied to capital formation.
Even more troubling is that hiring itself remains weak. The broader trend shows job growth averaging only a fraction of prior years, with some estimates suggesting as little as 15,000 to 20,000 per month over the past year. That is an economy treading water.
The Federal Reserve will likely sit on its hands, because it has no real control here. If it cuts rates, it risks fueling inflation through energy. If it raises rates, it risks accelerating the downturn. This is the trap created by sovereign debt and geopolitical mismanagement.
Former Commander of CENTCOM, General Frank McKenzie, appears on CBS to give his analysis of ongoing Operation Epic Fury, along with the successful rescue of the F-15 crew. WATCH:
[Transcript] – ED O’KEEFE: We’re joined now by the former head of U.S. Central Command, retired General Frank McKenzie. General, Happy Easter.
GEN. FRANK MCKENZIE: And the same to you, Ed.
ED O’KEEFE: So it took just under 48 hours to find the missing weapons systems officer. After the jet they were in went down in a remote and mountainous area of southwestern Iran, the weapons officer was hiding in a mountainous crevice. We’re told by a senior administration official, what’s your assessment of how the search and rescue operation went?
GEN. MCKENZIE: So I think I’d draw two lessons from it, Ed. First of all, the excellence of the joint force, our ability to rapidly pivot, to look for a downed air crewman. We train for this endlessly. It’s a part of every time we send air crew over enemy territory, we have detailed, elaborate plans to go get them. It’s a very basic part of who we are as American fighting men and women. So that plan swung into action. I think it was executed pretty effectively. As always, you’ve got somebody on the ground, may be injured. They got to get to a position where they can hide until you can get to them. All that seemed to work out very well. And you know, we did, in fact, lose a couple of aircraft in that in that mission. But I would just tell you, it takes a year to build an aircraft. It takes 200 years to build a military tradition where you don’t leave anybody behind. You take the aircraft trade any day in a situation like this. The other lesson, I think, is a hard lesson for Iran. First of all, they were not able to find the missing air crewman. Second, you know, they put out a broad appeal to their people to turn him in reward, asking for all kinds of leads, that does not appear to have been successful. And that would- I think that’s maybe a sign of disaffection, don’t know, but you can’t, you can’t be happy with that if you’re a senior leader in Tehran this morning.
ED O’KEEFE: Yeah, you know Iran’s Revolutionary Guards now claiming responsibility for attacks on petrochemical plants in the UAE, Kuwait and Bahrain. They warn its attacks against U.S. economic interests will intensify if attacks on civilian targets in Iran are repeated, does Iran and its proxies retain the capacity to inflict serious damage at this point?
GEN. MCKENZIE: They have the ability to inflict damage. They do not have the ability to gain mass effects. And by mass effects, I mean firing many, many dozens of rockets, missiles or drones. I think that capability has been eroded steadily since this campaign began. And frankly, at about plus 30 days into this campaign, I think if you’re at Central Command, you’ve got to be reasonably satisfied with where you are right now. In fact, Ed, when I was the CENTCOM Commander, if you had given me this situation at plus 30 days, I would have rejected it as being too optimistic by far. So we’ve had good effect. Our effects are going to continue. It’s going to be increasingly harder for them to launch missiles and rockets. We may not get to zero for a while, and I think there’s still some time ahead, but everyone realizes that. But I think we’re on track here. This campaign is moving very effectively, and I believe the pace will pick up every day.
ED O’KEEFE: To your earlier point, the president said something interesting to Fox News this morning, revealing for the first time that the U.S., earlier this year had sent a quote, lot of guns to the Kurds, who live in northern Iraq, northern Iran for use by protesters. So he wanted them to use these weapons. And said, you know, inferring now that he was sending weapons to have the Iranian people rise up on Wednesday night, though, in his big speech, clarifying what the war is all about, he said, This campaign is not about regime change, but if they are now, in fact, arming protesters. What might that signal?
GEN. MCKENZIE: Well, I think you want to put pressure on this regime in every way that you can. Arming Kurds certainly increases pressure on the Iranian regime. We know from history that leadership in Iran responds when existential pressure is applied to the regime. Arming the Kurds moves you a step closer toward that even if your ultimate aim is not regime change, getting the regime and Tehran to a place where they’ll make a deal that’s to our liking, is going to be the inevitable by product of intolerable pressure that’s placed over- on them. And I think all of these add together to do that.
ED O’KEEFE: You said last week, a success for the White House is that the Strait of Hormuz reopens, but that vital passageway, of course, remains effectively choked off. The president this Easter morning, used some, shall we say, colorful language, to threaten Iran again to reopen the strait, if the U.S. launches its own military operation in the coming days to open the strait, what’s it going to take militarily to do that?
GEN. MCKENZIE: Well, let me, let me say, first of all, we do have the ability to open the strait. Should we choose to do it in what you’re seeing now are the- what I would call the precursor of the initial steps in such a campaign you want to reduce Iran’s ability to fire short range rockets and missiles into the strait against warships. You want to take out their fast attack craft. Think of them as cigarette boats, large, powerful outboard engined boats that can race out and get among ships and cause direct damage that way. What we’re doing is we’re going after all those vessels. And that’s where a 10s attack aircraft, attack helicopters and other slow moving, low altitude platforms are so very effective. So we’re in the process of removing those right now. At the same time, we’re working to get rid of Iran’s mine stockpile. The mines are very dangerous. They had thousands when the war began. I have no doubt we significantly (UNINTELLIGIBLE) them, now. Of course, it doesn’t take many mines to cause a significant blockage to world shipping. So all of that is underway right now, and you want to reduce those to a low level before you put your warships up there to actually sort of test the waters in that strait. I have no idea what Admiral Cooper’s decision making process is going to be for that, but I think we’re well on the way to achieving those goals.
ED O’KEEFE: Can the strait be reopened with an air and naval campaign or are you going to need ground troops?
GEN. MCKENZIE: I think it could be opened with an air and naval campaign, and the use of ground troops would probably be along the line of raids. And remember, a raid is an attack with a planned withdrawal, where you don’t plan to stay. The one exception might be Kharg Island. I know the president has talked about it. I think it has a unique place in Iranian culture, because of one thing, if you seize it, you’re holding Iranian soil. Secondly, it is the critical mode through which all their oil supplies pass. By seizing it, you have the opportunity to cut that off, inflicting grievous damage on the Iranian economy, and yet with the opportunity, perhaps, to return it as part of a negotiation process. Further, you don’t permanently damage the global economy by destroying the infrastructure. So I think Kharg Island is a very lucrative target. I’m sure we’re looking at it hard right now. I have no idea if we’re going to choose to go up there.
ED O’KEEFE: In our last 30 seconds or so, here, General, bottom line this. The president says two to three weeks is all that it’s going to take? Would you agree with that? Or is it going to take longer?
GEN. MCKENZIE: You know, I always hesitate to put time on a- to put a timeline on a military operation like this, but I would say the Iranians would be very well served to listen to President Trump when he says he’s going to hit him because he’s pro- he’s proven that he’s willing to do that. So that’s the lesson I would learn from from his most recent pronouncement, and from actually what we’ve done in the war to this day, if the president says we’re going to do something, we’re probably going to do it. And it probably is good time for the Iranian leadership to take note of that fact.
ED O’KEEFE: All right, we’ll leave it there. General McKenzie, happy Easter again. Thank you for spending some time with us this morning. We appreciate it.
[END TRANSCRIPT]
I have created this site to help people have fun in the kitchen. I write about enjoying life both in and out of my kitchen. Life is short! Make the most of it and enjoy!
De Oppresso Liber
A group of Americans united by our commitment to Freedom, Constitutional Governance, and Civic Duty.
Share the truth at whatever cost.
De Oppresso Liber
Uncensored updates on world events, economics, the environment and medicine
De Oppresso Liber
This is a library of News Events not reported by the Main Stream Media documenting & connecting the dots on How the Obama Marxist Liberal agenda is destroying America
Australia's Front Line | Since 2011
See what War is like and how it affects our Warriors
Nwo News, End Time, Deep State, World News, No Fake News
De Oppresso Liber
Politics | Talk | Opinion - Contact Info: stellasplace@wowway.com
Exposition and Encouragement
The Physician Wellness Movement and Illegitimate Authority: The Need for Revolt and Reconstruction
Real Estate Lending
Centinel2012 