The Morning Sixpack - July 22, 2025

MLK file diversion, Trump’s student deportations, soaring beef prices, Border Patrol city raids, and GM’s tariff-hit profits sink

GM’s Profits Flatline as Trump Tariffs Turn On

General Motors posted a 35% drop in net income for Q2 2025, wiping out gains from robust sales growth, thanks to President Trump’s auto tariffs slapping a $1.1 billion dent in their bottom line. While GM beat analyst expectations on the surface, the tariff impact is real and looming larger.

The company expects tariffs to hit even harder in Q3, though it’s still clinging to its full-year profit forecast. CEO Mary Barra insists GM is "positioning the business for a profitable, long-term future," navigating trade policy shifts and the tech evolution, but the near-term pain is undeniable.

Tariffs mainly struck GM’s North American unit, masking their pain with better international results, especially from China, and favorable currency moves. Despite the tariff blow, GM's U.S. production plans include shifting some manufacturing back stateside to offset costs, like moving the Chevy Blazer SUV from Mexico to Tennessee.

Electric vehicle sales more than doubled from last year, but GM is doubling down on gas-powered engines too—investing nearly $900 million to upgrade an EV plant for V-8 engines, signaling that the gas engine isn’t going away quietly. Price hikes haven’t yet become the norm, but Barra hasn’t ruled them out to stay competitive.

GM isn’t alone—tariffs are squeezing the entire auto industry. Stellantis took a $350 million tariff hit last quarter, and Tesla’s results this week will be another piece of the tariff puzzle. GM imports about half of its vehicles, including entry-level cars and big trucks from South Korea, Mexico, and Canada, making them vulnerable to these tariffs.

Source: WSJ (gift article)

If you want the raw no-nonsense truth: Tariffs are trashing profits, forcing GM to rethink where and how they build cars, and it’s going to get far worse before it gets better. The industry’s bracing for a rough road ahead.

In fact, just yesterday, Stellantis posted a loss. Stellantis warns of $2.7 billion loss on writedowns, tariff impact

U.S. Is Dumping Deportees in Eswatini

…and locking them in solitary confinement with no clear end in sight.

Five men convicted of violent crimes like murder and child rape, deported under the Trump administration’s shadowy third-country program, are now trapped in solitary confinement in Eswatini prisons. No one knows how long they’ll be held or what happens next.

Eswatini, a tiny African monarchy with a history of brutal crackdowns on dissent, accepted these deportees despite unclear arrangements and classified terms with the U.S. government. The men come from countries that refuse to take them back, leaving them stuck in a legal and humanitarian limbo.

The U.S. says these men were “off American soil” as Homeland Security proudly announced their deportation, but the real story is a secretive deal that shifts responsibility without a timeline for repatriation. The International Organization for Migration hasn’t even been formally asked to help yet. That’s their job, by the way.

This isn’t an isolated case—Eswatini follows South Sudan, Costa Rica, Panama, and El Salvador in hosting deportees the U.S. can’t—or won’t—return home. Critics point out that both Eswatini and South Sudan are repressive regimes, raising ethical questions about the U.S.’s outsourcing of its immigration problems to countries with questionable human rights records.

Source: WaPo (gift article)

Let’s call it what it is: America’s deportation game is more about offloading inconvenient people than finding humane solutions. And doing it under the radar with authoritarian partners only makes the whole operation more disgusting. I don’t care what these “criminals” did—they deserve humane treatment. That’s the fucking law.

Border Patrol Agents Are Arresting Immigrants Hundreds of Miles from the Border

The Trump administration has unleashed Border Patrol agents in major cities like Los Angeles and New York, far from their traditional southern border turf, to carry out mass deportation raids and arrests. This shift marks a major departure from their original mission and has advocates warning that it’s becoming a troubling new normal.

Once focused on securing the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border, Border Patrol agents are now sweeping parks, day laborer spots, and even courthouse halls across the country, wielding broad authority granted by a 1946 law and a Justice Department interpretation allowing them to operate within 100 miles of any border—which covers about two-thirds of the U.S. population. See link at the end of this story for a really good explainer on how we got here.

Critics argue this aggressive interior enforcement blurs lines between immigration control and ordinary law enforcement, raising serious constitutional and civil rights concerns. A federal judge recently blocked the administration from conducting stops without reasonable suspicion in parts of California, highlighting the mounting legal pushback.

Meanwhile, local immigrant communities are left facing heavily armed federal agents showing up without warning, often creating “theater and chaos” rather than calm enforcement. Former DHS officials worry that pulling Border Patrol from their core border security roles also weakens crucial investigations into drug trafficking and human smuggling.

Source: Washington Post—Border Patrol arrests far from border

More: How the Supreme Court Enabled the Border Patrol’s Insane 100-Mile Power Grab

Here’s the deal: the Border Patrol is morphing into an all-purpose immigration SWAT team for America’s cities, but they weren’t trained for this kind of work—and neither were the communities caught in the crossfire. This isn’t just border security anymore; it’s a creeping federal crackdown right in the heart of our neighborhoods.

Beef Prices Are at Record Highs

What happened, Trump? I thought you were going to drop prices FAST on Day One?

Forget eggs—the price surge hitting your grocery cart now is all about beef, which has soared nearly 9% since January to a staggering $9.26 per pound. Steak and ground beef have climbed even higher over the past year, with no relief on the horizon.

Unlike eggs, beef is a wild beast to manage. Shrinking herds, relentless droughts, and growing reliance on imports from places like Argentina and Brazil are squeezing supply, while Americans keep chomping away, demand unwavering. Tyson Foods calls it “the most challenging market conditions we’ve ever seen.”

Cattle herds are at a 74-year low as ranchers struggle with razor-thin margins amid skyrocketing feed costs caused by drought-ravaged pastures. Meanwhile, Walmart is trying to cut costs by opening its own beef facility to bypass middlemen—clearly, retailers are scrambling to keep prices somewhat manageable.

But the real question is how long consumers will keep paying these premium prices. “If consumer confidence falls alongside household financial uncertainty, demand for beef could be at risk,” warns an industry economist. And when demand dips, ranchers could get stuck with high-priced cattle nobody wants.

Source: CNN report on record beef prices

Beef isn’t expensive just because of supply and demand—it’s caught in a perfect storm of climate, economics, and shifting global markets. Don’t expect that juicy ribeye to get any cheaper anytime soon, if ever.

Trump’s Crackdown on Pro-Palestinian Student Activists Is Anti-First Amendment

In an unusual move, Judge William Young in Boston combined the preliminary injunction hearing with a full trial to expose the Trump administration’s sweeping campaign targeting noncitizen students who protested the war in Gaza.

This isn’t just a lawsuit—it’s the frontline of a battle over the First Amendment and academic freedom.

The students, like Mahmoud Khalil and Rümeysa Öztürk, were targeted by ICE and State Department actions based largely on their political speech.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio personally signed off on visa revocations, openly admitting the government’s goal to “run out” these “lunatics.”

That little prick with the littler prick is the son of immigrants from fucking CUBA. Remember when we—especially Republicans—hated Communists?

The administration’s plan was fueled by data from pro-Israel groups like Canary Mission, which doxed activists, feeding their names to immigration authorities.

Despite the government’s denials of any ideological policy, evidence presented in court—including internal ICE memos warning about First Amendment challenges—paints a different picture: a coordinated, multi-agency crackdown on dissenting voices within universities, with far-reaching consequences for students and scholars who now self-censor or retreat from public life.

Judge Young made clear that this trial isn’t about relitigating individual cases but about holding the government accountable for violating constitutional rights on a broader scale. With witnesses protected from immigration retaliation, the case could set a precedent to restore academic freedom and free speech for countless international students under threat.

Source: New Yorker

This isn’t just bureaucratic red tape—it’s a weaponized effort to silence political dissent on campus, with immigration enforcement turned into a blunt instrument against free speech. This trial shines a light on how far the government’s willing to go to crush inconvenient voices—and that fight is just getting started.

Thousands of Newly Declassified MLK Assassination Files Drop

The National Archives just released over 230,000 pages of documents tied to Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1968 assassination, fulfilling a Trump-era executive order demanding transparency on the nation’s most infamous killings. This massive trove includes FBI memos, investigation details, and accounts from the convicted assassin’s former cellmate hinting at conspiracy.

While the family acknowledges the importance of transparency, they remind us these files come against the backdrop of a “relentlessly targeted” MLK legacy—harassed and surveilled by J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI with disinformation campaigns that still cloud the truth today. They continue to question the official story and maintain that James Earl Ray may have been set up.

Attorney General Pam Bondi emphasized that Americans deserve answers after decades of unanswered questions surrounding the murder of the country’s greatest civil rights icon. Still, it remains unclear what new revelations this avalanche of records might bring.

The release is part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to open files on historic assassinations, following similar disclosures about JFK and Robert Kennedy. Meanwhile, pressure mounts on the White House to unveil more documents related to Jeffrey Epstein’s scandal.

Source: NPR

Look, opening decades-old files is a start—but let’s not kid ourselves: the FBI’s history with MLK is a dark maze of surveillance and sabotage. Whether these documents untangle the full story or just deepen the fog remains to be seen, but one thing’s for sure—the quest for truth is far from over.

And let’s not forget that Trump is pulling out all stops on manufactured diversions away from Epstein. Trump is dirty. The FBI is—right this minute—tagging and scrubbing the Epstein files of any reference to Trump. Count on it!

Extra: In some sad news, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, ‘Cosby Show’ Star, Dies at 54