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Transcript

The Village Oak Tree

More News Stories from Trumplandia, and Would China Fight if Pushed?

Fáilte

Welcome to The Village Oak Tree

I am your host, Terrance Ó Domhnaill.

Thank you for joining me once again.

This week, I'm going to try and stay away from Trump’s efforts to become a dictator. There’re enough people jumping into that fray so I don't need to join them. Instead, I'm going to talk some more about ICE and their draconian efforts across the country to snatch up undocumented people everywhere, the great American migration of people on the move across the country for a variety of reasons, the assault on the environment in Trumplandia, and some different news from around the world that might affect people everywhere. These are just little oddities I found outside of the mainstream that might make someone sit up and take notice.

After I have presented my findings from this week's news feeds, I would ask everyone to stick around through my commercial break to hear another chapter of The Priest by Michael Campi

So come, sit down somewhere comfortable for a bit and let me show you what I've found this week.


Let's jump right into what Homeland Security is doing this week with regard to who they're rounding up.

But first, let me read a quote I got from the Google AI tool, that tells us what the federal law is regarding the legality of undocumented people's ability to travel across U.S. state lines.

There are no states in the United States where undocumented immigrants are prohibited from crossing state lines. The US Constitution and federal immigration laws generally allow for free movement between states, including for undocumented immigrants. While some states have enacted laws that may impact the ability of undocumented immigrants to drive, work, or receive certain benefits, these laws do not restrict their ability to travel between states

But, that isn't stopping certain states from enacting laws prohibiting undocumented immigrants from crossing their state lines. Florida is one, and so is Arizona. In Florida, they have laws now that prohibit anyone from bringing in undocumented immigrants to work. They consider this human trafficking. There was a recent story about a car full of migrants that crossed into Florida from Georgia, that was stopped; and when the police ran the I.D. cards or lack thereof, one of the men was sent to an ICE detention and the driver was arrested for trafficking. No one had committed a crime, ever. Certain states prevent non-citizens from obtaining state issued drivers licenses and state I.D's to try and stop undocumented immigrants from living and working in there. So, if you decide to travel to Florida for any reason, you better bring proof of citizenship or if you want to travel to Arizona, or one of these other very restrictive states. If I travel through any of these areas of the U.S., I will be bringing my citizenship papers for sure.

In Syracuse, NY, the local police are going after everyone who looks Latino and checking their papers. I mean everyone. If their walking down the street, going to school, in their front yards, and in every public or even private spaces.

This is the new United States. If you're a Latino in Trumplandia, you're subject to being accosted by the police and arrested for lack of proof of citizenship. Even if it's at home. In some places, even a Real I.D. driver's license isn't good enough. Only a passport will do. Who carries their passports with them everywhere inside the U.S.? For that matter, how many native born citizens normally carry a passport with them or even have one when they go to the local grocer or shopping mall? In some courts, birth certificates are being examined for authenticity, as if there is a deliberate scheme to show fake birth certificates.

The fear this is generating amongst the Latino communities across the country is creating havoc in the labor markets. Housing contractors can't find day laborers anymore. Farmers are losing their field crews. Dairy farms are losing their farm hands, landscaping companies are losing their seasonal workers, and so it goes. These people, legal or otherwise, are on the run from ICE and staying out of sight. They're not going to work anymore. Which will eventually create a humanitarian crisis as these people will eventually get hungry. Maybe that's part of the plan? I mean, this is coming from a president who is willing to ethnically cleanse Gaza and the West Bank for Israel by starving them out.

With the American economy already on the ropes due to the tariffs, this labor shortage will only make things worse. As small companies start to go under due to lack of employees, the recession that everyone in the government is telling us is not happening, will be in everyone's face and hard to ignore. I have been saying that we're already there for a while now. This recession is getting started in earnest and it's getting hard to ignore.

I'm already seeing local grocery stores with empty shelves that they're covering up with other products in an effort to hide the truth. CEO's are telling Trump directly that the U.S. retailers only have enough products in their warehouses for another couple of weeks. I watched a news video last weekend where the podcast host said, even if Trump were to reverse the tariffs next week, the damage is done. It's too late to send any cargo ships to the U.S. west coast in time to offset the empty warehouses. If the tariffs were reversed or dropped to a low level, importers could fly cargo in but it still wouldn't be enough to offset the empty warehouse that the U.S. consumers will have by the middle to the end of May.

The U.S. will experience something they only had a taste of back in 2020 for a brief moment in time. This time, the shortages and supply chain interruptions will last a lot longer that what was experienced during the Covid lockdown. The people who know how all of this works, are telling anyone who'll listen, that the U.S. consumers will experience a roller coaster ride of shortages and surpluses throughout the year if even these tariffs are lifted now. If they aren't, then the shortages will show up and remain for the duration.

There will be cities and regions that will fare better than others, like we saw during 2020. Some areas will do better because they are in a easy to get to supply route and have more customers. The more customers, the more the companies will route what products they have as they're assured of selling them until they run out.

Which means that the rural and hard to get to areas of the back country of the U.S. will suffer from severe shortages a lot more than their easier to deliver to, and heavier populated city dwellers. And it's these rural, hard to get to small towns across the U.S. that largely voted for Trump and the MAGA party in the first place. Some will support them no matter what, just like they keep believing their Christian God is going to come down to earth someday and rescue them from their poverty and misery. But a whole lot of others will see the MAGA party and its dear leader for who they are. A bunch of con artists who don't care about them. Just like the democrats.

It's in this background that I bring you a news story about the great migration happening all across the United States. More and more people are selling out their homes and leaving their lives behind to relocate to other states with people more aligned to their way of thinking. Or for better work opportunities, climate change, and a myriad of other reasons. I wrote a blog article entitled The Great American Migration back in July of 2022 that talks about this before Trump told everyone he was running for president again.

Meet the new American refugees fleeing across state lines for safety

Americans have often moved between states for opportunities. Now they’re being forced to uproot themselves to escape hostile forces under Trump

Ed Pilkington for The Guardian

I wrote it when Texas was ramping up its war on women's rights and the LGBTQ+ population, more specifically the Trans people. I wrote then about how people were flocking to Texas because of this, and others were leaving just as fast. Back in 2022, Texas was experiencing a housing boom from California, as people were leaving California for places like Texas. Central Texas experienced a boom there due to cheap housing, cheap property taxes (As compared to California), the climate being similar to California, weather wise, and for some, the politics was more to their liking with the Texas republicans going after everyone they didn't like. With housing prices in California so high, these intrastate immigrants were arriving in Texas with suitcases full of cash, figuratively speaking, and paying cash for cookie cutter houses built on the cheap in new subdivisions that the municipal utilities couldn't handle. The smaller towns couldn't erect enough electrical utility infrastructure fast enough, nor could the water and sewage facilities handle the huge influx of new subdivisions. This was one of the biggest reasons why we left at the end of 2020.

This was starting to happen while we were still there and we watched from our new home as the electrical grid collapsed in February of 2021 during that freak, climate change induced, freeze that took everything down across nearly the whole state for about a week. We had a lot of friends still living there and they told us horror stories about frozen water pipes, burst hot water heaters, and flooded houses. No electricity for a week and so on. Some of the poorest people died.

Then a couple of years later, the housing boom crashed in Texas. We knew of people that lost a lot of money on houses that were now worth less than what they paid for them. Once again, people were forced to migrate to another state.

This is not a new phenomenon. Americans have been moving across the country for as long as there have been people immigrating from Europe. Even the native Americans migrated between winter layover grounds and prime summer hunting grounds before the Europeans showed up and ruined it all.

The difference now, is there are a lot more migrations due to ideology. The MAGA diehards want to move to a state or region that's more friendly towards their beliefs. Others are moving to safer states where their trans gender children can get the medical help they need. A lot of women are pulling up stakes to relocate to somewhere, anywhere, where they can get an abortion, should they desire. Other people are relocating to states that are more liberal and so on. The biggest takeaway for this right now, is that there are a lot more of these intrastate migrations taking place right now than in years past. We can see that right here in my little community on the east coast. New subdivisions and apartment complexes are being raised everywhere here. The traffic on the local streets has more than doubled in the four years since we moved here to central Virginia.

Add to that, the undocumented immigrants who are leaving states to try and avoid the police and border patrol. There are some sanctuary cities, although a lot fewer now, where they feel a little safer. Some states also offer a little better of an accommodating environment for undocumented migrants but that's shrinking by the day now all over the U.S. ICE is even boarding trains in the northern tier states to check for proof of citizenship papers from passengers. Not that I will be traveling by train for any reason, but I can guarantee what I would do if one of these SS troopers asked me for my papers if I were a train passenger. I would probably end up in jail or shot.

I typically travel by automobile wherever I go. When we go on vacations, we take our RV motorhome. I like having more control over my travel. When we go and where we stop makes a big difference to me. I have already started changing what I pack for any out of state vacations in Trumplandia.

I've even added a dashcam to my equipment list, an extra-large first aid kit, and wilderness survival gear. We will make sure we have our legal citizenship documents with us. I'll have my passport, even though I'm an American citizen, and my wife will have her green card, with us at all times. Which she already started doing as of January. I will also pack up one of my small rifles and my pistol because there are a lot more people running around the U.S. now who are more of a danger to tourists and recreationalists than any animals I may encounter in one of the parks.

As we like to visit the national parks, having a rifle and pistol is even more paramount this year as DOGE has fired nearly all of the park rangers. So, should I encounter a large animal, either two legged or four, I can't depend on anyone coming to help me anymore. Even If I should have phone service, which they warn that you probably won't. If you visit a large national or state park now with the MAGA people in charge of all of the federal government institutions, you're largely on your own. Think about that if you want to visit a large government park this year and in the near future.

If the occasion should arise where I need to embark on an airplane for a vacation or otherwise, I will try to fly on a plane that belongs to any other country other than the United States. Such as Aer Lingus if I wish to travel to Ireland someday, or Air China if we go to China someday. Preferably on an Airbus, and not Boeing. Boeing is very scary to ride in these days.

As I said a couple of weeks ago, international tourism in the U.S. is in the basement right now. The majority of the park visitors will only be Americans and they're more dangerous than anyone or anything else anywhere now. Americans are indoctrinated from an early age that if you want something bad enough, you can work hard enough to get it. That philosophy also applies to certain people who like to consider themselves opportunists.

And opportunities abound now in the national and state parks with most of the park rangers and enforcement laid off. There will be a lot more people who will take any opportunity to prey on tourists. They will now be emboldened to steal and do other things they might not ordinarily have done in the past, due to a presence of park rangers and law enforcement. With the guardrails removed by DOGE, I expect we'll hear about more people disappearing from hiking trails, robberies and assaults of all kinds in the parks this summer. I'm not taking any chances with the safety of my family should I venture to any of the nation's parks this year. I'm packing extra gear to insure our safety.

Late last year, I reported about the sheer numbers of documented homeless people in the U.S. as of the government count in November. That number was just a bit shy of 800,000 people living on the streets, in cars, in old RV.s and tents and so on. This does not account for those who list a home address during a survey but may not actually live there anymore. This number also doesn't take into account all those who've recently lost their federal jobs lately. Or those who may lose their jobs soon when more tariffs kick in and companies go out of business or cut back to reduce operational costs. This number also doesn't account for those who can't be found, or who don't want to be found. Out in the extreme rural areas of the country, there are a lot more of those these days.

During the warm weather months, how many of these homeless people will be taking advantage of the lack of oversight in the parks and decide to go camping without worrying too much about how long they stay? I'm sure that there will be some accountability for RV campers in the larger RV camp grounds because they're usually located near the park major infrastructure but the wilderness camping for tenters and back packers, probably not so much. If you want to take a chance, I suggest you think about bringing some kind of personal protection, even if it's just a can of Mace or tear gas.

In other news, I have an article from Caitlin Johnstone in Australia that talks about the loss of free speech in the western world, courtesy of the Zionists in Israel. She says that the Zionists are the greatest threat to free speech around the world today. We've seen this in action all across the western world, in the U.S., the UK, western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania and other places where the long hand of the Zionists feel threatened, especially since October of 2023.

Caitlin’s Newsletter
Zionism Is The Single Greatest Threat To Free Speech In The Western World Today
Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley…
Read more

In the United States, this is playing out every day now as people are having their visas revoked for having any pro-Palestine, Hamas, Hezbollah or Houthis content on their electronic devices or posts in social media. Posts denigrating Israel, or Israeli government officials and so on. The good news is that the judicial branch of the U.S. government has started blocking these revocations of student visas and green cards, pending reviews in courts. Which is good news for those already in the detention center in Louisiana, such as the scholar from Türkiye with asthma, and other detention centers across the country.

This doesn't help those in the UK who are being arrested on terrorism charges just for showing support for the Palestinians. This includes Australia, and Canada. The people in the U.S. are actually fighting back against this now and winning. I wish I could say the same for the British commonwealth countries.

Now to another part of the world. I'm sure most people who read or watch the news, knows about the latest violent spat between Pakistan and India. For those who don't pay attention to anything not having to do with Trump, let me bring you up to speed.

Last week, a group of terrorists killed 26 tourists in Kashmir. This spot has a long history of terrorist activity and these latest killings added to the long tally of the dead here. This time though, India has a hard line, anti-Muslim prime minister by the name of Modi. His ethnic crackdowns in the recent past have raised the tension between Hindus and Muslims to new levels and this is no exception.

Can India really stop river water from flowing into Pakistan?

Navin Singh Khadka Environment correspondent, BBC World Service

Senior Pakistani official threatens India with nukes

A remark by the country’s railways minister underscores rising tensions after terrorists gunned down 26 people in Kashmir

From RT News/India

India is looking for ways to shut off the water in the Indus river that flows to Pakistan, and even one low level minister in Pakistan is advocating for the use of Pakistan's nukes to punish India. As he is a fairly low level government official, his threats don't carry much weight but you can see how angry these people are and willing to fire nukes without considering the consequences. A lot of them are beyond thinking rationally. Will there be war here? Maybe. There are daily reports coming out now of Indian soldiers and factional group members from Pakistan trading rifle shots across the borders there. Modi has taken the leash off of his troops as of yesterday so I expect to see some clashes within the next few days or so.

If they do go to war again, there will be a lot of dead people as India has better war equipment now than they used to. Pakistan has their own upgraded equipment, so there could be a limited war similar to what we have been witnessing between Russia and Ukraine, even without the nukes. Again, lots of dead civilians and a huge refugee crisis.

Speaking of refugee crisis, last week I dedicated a whole podcast dedicated to the Sudan crisis. This week, I picked out another story that stood out from all of the others. Much like in Gaza, the survivors of all of this warfare are down to eating whatever they can find to put something, anything such as they can find as there is no other food available anymore. The RSF appears to be bent on the ethnic cleansing of all non-Muslims in their territory. They're being accused of executing people in the camps, mass raping the women, and burning out the huts at the camps, while shooting at the refugees. I read one story where they executed 31 people at one camp. There are people starving to death and dying of thirst out on the desert roads leading from the ravaged camp at el-Fasher to Tawila. Witnesses report that there are lots of bodies lying alongside the roads everywhere. Picture this in Kashmir if the Pakistanis and Indians go to war.

Sudanese eating charcoal and leaves to survive, aid agency warns

Cecilia Macaulay BBC News

Now on to environmental news. This first one is a combination environmental and political corruption story. I told everyone last year about a Brazilian corporation, JBS, that had been accused of deforesting the Amazon, investing in illegal gold mines and was working to become the world's largest meat producer in the world. Supplying beef to hungry south Americans, north Americans and Europeans, operating meat packing plants with dubious laborers and so on.

The World’s Biggest Meat Company Gets the Greenlight to Go Public on the New York Stock Exchange

Advocacy groups have pushed regulators to block JBS’ bid, noting its history of corruption charges, illegal deforestation and unfulfilled climate promises. Federal approval came after a big donation to Trump’s inauguration.

By Georgina Gustin for Inside Climate News April 25, 2025

What these brothers were doing to the environment in the Amazon to realize their financial goals was beyond the pale. Now, it seems that their corruption has reached into the American stock exchange. According to this report, JBS got the green light from U.S. federal regulators to offer their stock on the American stock exchange after donating hugely to Trump's inaugural fund. In most places I know this would be called a bribe, but in the U.S., it's called a political campaign donation. In the U.S., it's perfectly legal, sort of. Advocacy groups are trying to block this but, due to Trump being the mafia don that he is, opposition groups will not likely stop this. Trump now tells the federal regulators who can do what or not. As reporters keep telling everyone, Trump is strictly transactional. If you grease his palms with enough, what we called Bak Sheesh in Dari when I was in Afghanistan, you can get what you want from the mafia don. He doesn't care if it looks like blatant corruption. What are people going to do, fire him?

My other environmental story is also about Trump. What isn't these days. He has blessed the fast-tracking of deep sea mining. You know why he's doing this. He desperately needs as much rare earth minerals as he can get his hands on, no matter where it comes from, in order to satisfy the needs of the tech oligarchy in silicon valley. With the Chinese export restrictions of rare earth minerals hitting the U.S. chip and tech industries hard now, and the deals to take over Greenland and Ukraine's mineral wealth all but non-existent, Trump has to get these minerals from somewhere. What better place than from the deep sea beds where no one cares but the fish and other marine life. Since they aren't eligible to vote in U.S. elections, and they don't have an army of lawyers to stand up to him, Trump is more than okay to greenlight deep sea mining, as long as he gets a large cut of the profits. Who cares about the marine environment he'll ruin in the process. As old as he is, he won't live long enough to feel the effects of the damaged ecosystems, and that's all that matters. He doesn't care about whether his children and grandchildren will have to live in a ruined world. He'll be dead and beyond caring.

Trump Just Fast-Tracked Deep Sea Mining, Despite Global Opposition

The move opens the door for firms tired of waiting for permission to scrape the ocean floor.

I found another odd story from RT News Russia. This one is about how the U.S. has been employing British mercenaries to handle certain security tasks, such as ICE detention centers. But, there is more. A lot more. This company, G4S, which stands for Group 4 Securitas, has evolved beyond just your run of the mill personal security detail for world leaders. They were first hired to guard Zelensky and Ukrainian critical infrastructure. Now they manage prisons worldwide and have been accused of abuse, torture and killings. British-American firms are now the go to for countries who don't want to use their own militaries to do certain distasteful tasks. They primarily work for multinational corporations and we all know how few morals they have when it comes to getting what they want.

Outsourcing war: British mercenaries now run America’s front lines

G4S’s mercenaries are everywhere – from the halls of American power to the darkest corners of detention centers

From RT News

In the U.S. , it used to be the U.S. marines who provided security for its embassies. Now, it's companies like G4S. They're more cost effective these days apparently. G4S is a multi-national company now, that hires its people out to anyone who can afford them. Even Canada. This is now a 400 billion dollar market worldwide. So, if you're ex-military and looking to stay in the game after a couple of combat tours, they're hiring. British or American, it makes little difference. The thing is, you better check your morality at the door before you show up for a job interview. With this type of multinational corporate security work, morals are a hindrance.

I have one more military story for you that you probably won't see from any western media. This is a story I found yesterday from RT News Russia. People have been listening to western propaganda that China won't fight anyone for a while now, and this article tells us that this a load of BS. The article provides a good bit of Chinese history with its past battles, and quite a bit of recent history since they helped the North Koreans in 1951. There is some history in this article that I didn't know about. The upshot of this, is that the U.S. had better not underestimate the Chinese military.

Think China is a ‘nation that can’t fight’? Think again

The West has mocked Beijing’s military for decades – it may soon regret it

By Vasily Kashin, Political Science PhD, Director of the Centre for Comprehensive European and International Studies, HSE for RT News

For anyone who's been paying any attention lately, China just unveiled a sixth gen stealth fighter that puts anything the west has to shame. They have carrier sinking hypersonic missiles that can't be caught. They have the largest Navy and largest Army in the world, with lots more reservists standing in the wings, should they need them. And, due to the latest western rhetoric about the Chinese economy and its people (JD Vance calling them peasants, which didn't go over well), they're now a lot more patriotic than before. Kind of like the Canadians. They may not like a lot of things about their government but it's their government and the U.S. doesn't get to disparage them. Especially when the U.S. comes after them economically.

As this reporter says, if anyone thinks China won't fight, they don't know anything about the Chinese people and their resolve. They have endured 5000 years of empires and invasions, from the Mongols of the Khans, to the Japanese during WWII (And they have never forgotten what the Japanese did to them back then). They know how to fight. They just choose their battles a lot better than the western nations. With the advanced technology at their disposal now, anyone who dares to attack them, will rue the day.

Which brings us to the U.S. and their stupid idea that China will chase them across the islands of the south Pacific, like when the Americans went after the Japanese during WWII. It just shows everyone that the U.S. training doctrine hasn't changed all that much since then. They obviously don't know much about the Chinese.

China has no interest in expanding their military reach into the Pacific, beyond the South China Sea, and the straights around their east coast. Meanwhile, the Americans are working on jungle warfare training on the islands they fought on during WWII, setting up missile batteries in Guam, the Philippines, and any other place around China that they can bully the governments into submission (Think Australia). All to contain the Chinese. Which, if they truly knew the Chinese, they would realize that there’s nothing to fear. But make no mistake, if attacked, or their national interests are threatened in such a way that it would severely hurt their sovereignty, they will fight and it won't be pretty. China has the ability to severely cripple any nation that would dare to attack them militarily. Especially the United States. You can bet that they've been practicing for war with the U.S. since 1952 and China knows how to play the long game so much better than anyone in the west.

My last story is a sort of a positive story. At least for California. The U.S. state of California has now surpassed Japan with its gross domestic product, or GDP percentages. California, just the state of California, is now the fourth largest economy in the world. Imagine that. What that means in political terms for the U.S., is that if California decided to go it alone, or make a deal with the two other west coast states of Oregon and Washington State to form their own country, they have the economies to do that. Imagine what that might look like? Imagine if Americans woke up someday and learned that in order to visit the Pacific ocean, they would have to have a visitor's visa to travel through a sovereign nation that controls the mountain passes across the Rocky Mountains from Idaho in the north to the south western deserts of Arizona, and Nevada.

California’s economy overtakes Japan

The state’s rapid growth, fueled by tech and clean energy, has made it the world’s fourth-largest economy

From RT News/Business

I doubt that's going to happen anytime soon but, just knowing they have the economic ability to manage that is an eye opener. I mean, California has been an economic powerhouse for decades but now they've hit the big leagues. And with all of the major urban and suburban areas politically deeply progressive and liberal (Deep Blue), you can bet the MAGA politicians will be keeping a close watch on things out there to make sure those states don't slip the reigns of the federal government. The loss of tax revenue alone would probably bankrupt what's left of the United States. And so goes the west coast, so would Hawaii probably, who is also a more progressive liberal leaning state.

I leave you with all of that to think about as I wrap things up for this week. I invite everyone to watch the video to catch my advert and listen to me read the latest chapter of The Priest, Chapter 33. For those who don’t like videos, here is a link to read this latest chapter.

Way Past What the F**K
The Priest
In Dreams…
Read more

Thank you for joining me once again. I hope you enjoyed it and that you'll return again to talk about the world we live in.

Please like, subscribe, reply and share the videos or audio podcasts, however you watch or listen. The goal here is to resist the people who want to take our freedoms away from us. I appreciate everyone around the world, no matter who or where you are. Together, we can resist the authoritarians but only if we stand up to them.

As I say good bye this week, I wish to leave you with an environmental quote from Robert Swan. "The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it." Slán go fóill.

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