Posted originally on CTH on May 9, 2025 | Sundance
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has won a $1.375 billion settlement from Google as a result of the state suing the tech company for continued privacy violations. [Press Release Here]
TEXAS – […] In 2022, Attorney General Paxton sued Google for unlawfully tracking and collecting users’ private data regarding geolocation, incognito searches, and biometric data. After years of aggressive litigation, Attorney General Paxton agreed to settle Texas’s data-privacy claims against Google for an amount that far surpasses any other state’s claims for similar violations.
To date, no state has attained a settlement against Google for similar data-privacy violations greater than $93 million. Even a multistate coalition that included forty states secured just $391 million—almost a billion dollars less than Texas’s recovery.
“In Texas, Big Tech is not above the law. For years, Google secretly tracked people’s movements, private searches, and even their voiceprints and facial geometry through their products and services. I fought back and won,” said Attorney General Paxton. “This $1.375 billion settlement is a major win for Texans’ privacy and tells companies that they will pay for abusing our trust. I will always protect Texans by stopping Big Tech’s attempts to make a profit by selling away our rights and freedoms.” (more)
Posted originally on May 9, 2025 by Martin Armstrong
Canadian exports to the United States are beginning to decrease in light of the trade war. Statistics Canada announced that exports to the United States, Canada’s largest trading partner, declined 6.6% during the first month of tariffs while imports from the United States fell 2.9%. March 2025 was the second-highest recorded monthly increase in non-US trade for Canada.
Exports to nations outside the US rose 24.8%. Overall exports in March 2025 reached $69.9 billion, a slight decrease from February’s $70.04 billion posting, yet volume rose by 1.8%. The United Kingdom has been purchasing unwrought (crude) gold exports from Canada this year, totaling C$2.01 billion in January, C$1.64 billion in February, and C$1.64 billon this March.
Canada’s crude oil sea exports doubled on an annual basis to 8 million barrels this month. The United Kingdom and the Netherlands imported 69% of all crude oil exports to Europe. Hong Kong also increased its crude imports from Canada in March.
Overall merchandise trade exports declined 0.2% for the month, with imports falling 1.5%. The trade deficit fell to C$506 million, notably less than the prior month’s C$1.4 billion deficit as Canada is seeking buyers.
Canada cannot fully rely on trade outside the US. March saw a 6.6% monthly decline in exports to the US, which is bad news for Canadian businesses. Trade with the US for March was still strong at US$140.5 billion, notably due to an increase in pharmaceuticals and medicines ahead of forthcoming industry-specific tariffs. Autos also saw an uptick ahead of industry-specific tariffs, posting a 7.7% export increase for the month. Iron and steel products, already subject to a 25% tariff, fell 9%, while aluminum alloys and unwrought aluminum rose 4.4%.
The S&P Global Manufacturing PMI for Canada reached 39.1 in April 2025. Canadian manufacturing has not seen such a contraction since early COVID months when the global economy came to a standstill. Imposed and proposed US tariffs are stifling demand as purchasers do not know what to expect.
Those adhering to US boycotts fail to realize that the Canadian economy is structurally tied to the US economy. Infrastructure was designed to support trade through railways, trucking routes, and pipelines. Europe and Asia cannot replace the accessibility or scale of the US market. Additionally, the economy is closely aligned with the USD, and a major pivot would expose Canada to currency volatility. Canada may strengthen ties with other nations to fill margins but it cannot write off its top trade partner.
Posted originally on May 6, 2025 by Martin Armstrong
Friedrich Merz was elected as Germany’s chancellor in a second-round parliamentary vote on Tuesday after failing to secure the necessary support earlier in the day. Merz needed at least 316 of the 630 members of parliament to vote in his favor, but he received only 325 votes (51.5%). Like Mark Carney in Canada, Merz will be the final nail in Germany’s coffin. He is pro-World War III. Simply comparing the economic growth of Germany, Europe’s cornerstone of the EU economy, to that of the United States, illustrates that the greater the socialistic policies of controlling everything, even freedom of speech, produce far less economic growth. The German economy has shrunk by 3% or more thanks to COVID lockdowns, Climate Change, and Russian sanctions.
Posted originally on May 6, 2025 by Martin Armstrong
Political parties questioning the status quo are labeled as “far-right extremists.” And yet, these political parties represent the people far more than others in the Build Back Better category, who only have their bureaucratic interests in mind. We’ve seen it happen throughout the world, from the United States to Romania, and now in Germany with the rise of the Alternative für Germany (AfD) Party. Leaders of the AfD have filed a lawsuit after the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) labeled the group extremist domestic terrorists.
The AfD became the most popular political party in Germany this April. The party does not want to adhere to the EU’s open border policy, climate madness, or the Build Back Better agenda. In fact, they’ve openly questioned Germany’s position in the European Union. The EU would be completely lost without Germany’s backing,g and Brussels has been on high alert. AfD members have called for a “remigration” or mass deportation operation similar to what Trump is currently conducting in the US. The party has vowed to restore Germany for the people of Germany and implement mass deportation campaigns.
Their beliefs represent those of the German people. Yet, one would be hard-pressed to find a single article about AfD that does not include “extremist” in the description. German authorities have considered banning the party under Article 21 of the German constitution, which forbids political parties that “seek to undermine or abolish the free democratic basic order or to endanger the existence of the Federal Republic of Germany shall be unconstitutional.”
In no way is this party seeking to abolish democracy. Banishing a political party, however, does undermine democracy completely and silences the wishes of the people in favor of the bureaucrats. “Through our lawsuit, we aim to send a decisive message against the misuse of state authority to suppress and exclude opposition,” and that the move seeks to “distort democratic competition and undermine millions of votes,” the AfD stated.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio voiced support for AfD over the weekend, stating that allowing German intelligence to label a political party an extremist group is “tyranny in disguise.” “What is truly extremist is not the popular AfD—which took second in the recent election—but rather the establishment’s deadly open border immigration policies that the AfD opposes,” Rubio wrote in a post on X.
“This is democracy. This decision is the result of a thorough & independent investigation to protect our Constitution & the rule of law,” the official X account for the German Foreign Office wrote in a reply to Rubio’s post. “It is independent courts that will have the final say. We have learnt from our history that rightwing extremism needs to be stopped.” Perhaps the foreign office has forgotten that a collapse in the German economy is what led to the rise of an actual extremist group.
The world has awoken, and all confidence in leftist regimes has vanished. The pendulum is swinging back toward conservatism due to the failed policies fueled by politicians who attempted to turn democratic democracies into socialist battlegrounds in the name of globalism. The people are rising not to embrace conservatism as a doctrine, but to reject the authoritarian overreach of governments that have lost all legitimacy.
Posted originally on May 6, 2025 by Martin Armstrong
The Amish had an extremely low rate of COVID infections, as well as for most diseases that infect modern societies. Regardless, the Canadian government is continuing to harass this community for failing to abide by COVID-era regulations. In particular, the Canadian government is demanding that the Amish community pay for non-compliance with the federal ArriveCAN app mandate.
The Amish do not have modern electricity, let alone cell phones. The government still insisted that the Amish download the ArriveCAN app during COVID, which was required to cross the border. Individual fines for non-compliance reached $20,000, with more than 30 Amish communities in Ontario racking up $300,000 in fines because their faith does not permit the use of electronic devices. They live in isolation from modern society and pose no risk, but the government was keen to attack anyone who avoided its authority. These regulations were never about the virus, but a power grab move for control. The Canadian government placed liens on Amish farmlands, destroyed their credit scores, and is threatening to destroy their livelihood because they did not download an app when the government told them to do so.
Leave it to top Canadian politicians to mount their soapboxes to speak of tolerance for other cultures, migrants, and religions. Now, Amish families are speaking out about how they cannot secure loans for farming equipment, removing their ability to sustain their communities all due to COVID mandates.
Founded in 2021,the Democracy Fund (TDF) has been assisting members of the Amish community in their legal battle with the government. “The Democracy Fund is committed to defending the rights of the Amish community,” said Mark Joseph, TDF Litigation Director. “By helping lift these liens, we are ensuring that this vulnerable community can continue to thrive and sustain their traditional way of life.”
TDF recently won two major lawsuits on behalf of families. Joseph said the litigation “underscores the unique vulnerabilities of the Amish community to modern legal systems.” TDF went as far as offering free legal services to those impacted by Trudeau’s authoritarian COVID regulations. “TDF remains committed to their defence, exploring further reports of liens and fines affecting other Amish families across the province. As a religious minority with limited access to modern legal resources, the Amish face steep hurdles—such as restricted property transactions or farm succession—when liens are imposed.”
Justin Trudeau called vaccine opponents “misogynistic and racist.” Yet, he went to extreme lengths to hurt marginalized communities who did not have enough of a voter base for exploitation. The public at large has erased the pain of COVID from its memory but countless people and communities are still facing the repercussions of COVID-era policies.
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