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Sigh. It's not parody. It's San Francisco. The city is shutting down a controversial program that used millions in taxpayer funds to provide alcohol to homeless residents struggling with addiction, according to the NY Post.

Mayor Daniel Lurie said the city will end the Managed Alcohol Program, which cost about $5 million each year and began during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“For years, San Francisco was spending $5 million a year to provide alcohol to people who were struggling with homelessness and addiction — it doesn’t make sense, and we’re ending it,” Lurie told The California Post.

The program was launched in April 2020, when the city placed unhoused residents in hotels during lockdowns. Medical staff supplied controlled amounts of beer and liquor to prevent dangerous withdrawal symptoms while stores and bars were closed. Although intended as a temporary measure, it continued for nearly six years.

During its operation, the program served only 55 people, translating to an average cost of roughly $454,000 per client.

Now, Lurie says the city has fully pulled its support.

“We have ended every city contract for that program,” he said.

Community Forward, the nonprofit that managed the initiative in recent years, confirmed that the city has terminated its funding. Financial records show the group received millions in public money, much of it spent on staff salaries.

San Francisco’s program was the first of its kind in the United States, modeled loosely on similar efforts in Canada. Unlike other harm-reduction policies, such as needle exchanges, MAP directly supplied alcohol to people already dependent on it.

Since taking office last year, Lurie has moved away from long-standing harm-reduction policies. He has also ended the distribution of drug-use equipment and pushed for stricter enforcement of street drug activity.

“Under my administration, we made San Francisco a recovery-first city and ended the practice of handing out fentanyl smoking supplies so people couldn’t kill themselves on our streets,” Lurie said.

“We have work to do, but we have transformed the city’s response, and we are breaking the cycles of addiction, homelessness and government failure that have let down San Franciscans for too long.”

Last year, he warned open-air drug markets that enforcement would increase.

“If you do drugs on our streets, you will be arrested,” Lurie said. “And instead of sending you back out in crisis, we will give you a chance to stabilize and enter recovery.”

The Post writes that recovery advocates welcomed the decision to end MAP. Tom Wolf, a former homeless addict who now works in outreach, said the program wasted public funds.

“They [were] wasting our money just paying people to keep using the drug that they’re hopelessly addicted to,” Wolf said.

He also criticized how harm reduction has evolved.

“Harm reduction itself is part of the overall social justice framework,” he said, adding that it has shifted from preventing disease to “supporting drug users.”

Steve Adami, head of the Salvation Army’s recovery-focused program in San Francisco, said the city is now rethinking decades of policy.

“Under Mayor Lurie, they have reassessed the outcomes of those models,” Adami said. “That we are a recovery-first city. He’s made a significant investment into abstinence-based and recovery-focused services.”

In May, Lurie signed the Recovery First Act, signaling a shift toward abstinence and treatment-based approaches.

Despite the changes, major challenges remain. San Francisco has limited detox capacity, with only about 68 beds for thousands of people who cycle through homelessness each year. Many residents seeking help still face long waits for treatment.

The end of the alcohol program reflects the mayor’s broader effort to reverse years of permissive policies as he tries to address addiction, homelessness, and the decline of the city’s downtown core.

As the information age barrels forward the age of the celebrity is coming to a close.  Largely because Hollywood elites do not understand how to navigate social media and their true personalities always bubble to the surface.  With no agents or managers to filter their impulsive opinions, narcissistic celebrities readily expose themselves and their stupidity.  

The glamour and mystique of the entertainment world is dead, and celebrities killed it.

One unexpected consequence of the decline of Hollywood is that the apparatus of adult pretenders (actors) is starting to go dangerously insane.  Big budget movies are losing hundreds of millions at the box office and new projects are in steep decline.  Top actors are stooping to doing TV commercials to get paid, something most of them would have sneered at a decade ago.  Acting royalty of the 90s and early 2000s are hitting the wall and getting too old to play the parts they want to play.  Fresh younger actors with actual talent are rare.     

The empire of degenerates is slowly fading into irrelevancy and the celebrity cult is desperately clinging to their delusions of grandeur.  Yes, they've always been a little crazy, but something new is happening. 

Breaking Bad Star Giancarlo Esposito: 'Time for a Revolution' — Some Will Die, But the Rest of Us Survive

Somebody has been playing make believe too long and needs a reality check pic.twitter.com/QrASaImrFz

— TaraBull (@TaraBull) January 29, 2026

The return of conservative and nationalist ideals has spurred widespread American opposition to the agenda of multiculturalism.  Multiculturalism is the key to the progressive strategy for deconstructing western civilization and replacing it with a relativistic socialist framework.  For leftists, mass deportations represent a reversal of political gains that took them decades to achieve.  This is why stopping ICE operations is absolutely the hill that leftists are willing to die on.

Every element of the leftist Utopian vision relies on the erasure of borders and the destruction of western principles through unchecked third world immigration. 

Actors and directors and producers have long tried to use their "platform" to influence the masses politically, but now they are calling for blood in the streets, violent revolution, making lists of conservative neighbors "just in case" and pretending as if they are rebel leaders fighting for the downtrodden. 

Dear @kathygriffin,
You have lost your mind and are going to get people hurt.

Why don’t you go out to Minnesota yourself and protest?

God forbid one of your dozens of fans listens to you and loses their life, you deserve to be held accountable. pic.twitter.com/Fd4f3mo8oS

— Chrissie Mayr???? (@ChrissieMayr) January 30, 2026

Others are fantasizing about revenge, including the rise of a new Democrat regime in which their conservative opponents are rounded up and imprisoned for nothing more than being conservative.  

Do we think Newsom’s DOJ will start with the Megyn Kelly and Matt Walsh types or just make it more efficient by raiding Fox and arresting everyone?

— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) January 30, 2026

When activists commit crimes and are held accountable for their actions, the progressive hive loses its collective mind.  It's important to understand that these people believe that they can do whatever they want as long as their motivations are deemed ideologically pure. 

They believe that if they break the law while "exercising free speech" then they are protected from consequences. They also cannot accept the fact that they do not represent the majority of the country.  They continue to pretend as if they didn't just lose an election, and that most of the country avidly supports deportations.

pic.twitter.com/sC9SEYlrIR

— Ben Stiller (@BenStiller) January 30, 2026

In truth, you will never see celebrities risking their lives for anything they claim to believe in.  Their posturing is purely performative.  But they could very well inspire some useful idiots to go out and commit terrible crimes. They claim it's all in the name of "freedom", but what kind of freedom?  Keep in mind, these are the same people that joyfully attempted to burn the Bill of Rights to the ground under the Biden Administration - Now they are suddenly patriots?

The Hollywood celebs are back telling us to be mad at ICE

I saw it so now you have to pic.twitter.com/qTUHPJZGrn

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) January 30, 2026

Narcissists are like suicide bombers; if they discover they are losing they will try to take everyone else down with them.  Hollywood activists used to be considered "cute" but now the mask is fully torn away.  These are not good and reasonable people, they are lunatics who are used to running the asylum.  They can't handle the idea that their celebrity no longer purchases power, so they are scratching and scraping for a chance to remain in the limelight, no matter the cost.

Authored by Jacki Thrapp via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Minnesota is facing heavy scrutiny after the Trump administration accused bad actors in the state of exploiting federal funds from child-focused programs for personal gain.

Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on Dec. 29, 2025, that 98 people—85 of Somali descent— were indicted in welfare fraud cases in the state.

Minnesota was home to the “largest COVID-19 fraud case” in America, as 78 defendants—72 of Somalian descent—were accused of pocketing $300 million to $400 million dollars of “Feeding Our Future” funds that were supposed to provide children free meals during the pandemic.

Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, the mastermind behind the “Feeding Our Future” scandal, was sentenced to 28 years in prison in August.

The Trump administration last month announced it would freeze $185 million in federal funds to Minnesota until the scandal-plagued state could prove that the money was being used properly.

Even though federal funds have temporarily dried up in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, prospective child care providers are still able to obtain child care licenses.

The Epoch Times investigated how to open a day care in Minnesota, with a focus on the Twin Cities, Minneapolis and Saint Paul, which have the highest concentration of Somali residents in the United States.

Licensing Applications

The State of Minnesota’s Department of Children, Youth, and Families manages licensing applications for child care centers and charges a nonrefundable fee of $500 to apply. Prospective small business owners can receive a license in approximately three to six months.

Aspiring providers have two routes to obtain a license: open a child care center or provide services at their own home.

An in-home day care license is hundreds of dollars cheaper and requires potential providers to go through their local county for a small fee. Some may even be eligible to receive a grant of $2,000 for startup costs.

Aspiring child care providers seeking licensure in Hennepin and Ramsey counties, which oversee applications in Minneapolis and St. Paul, have to pay a nonrefundable $50 application fee.

Before an application can be submitted, future business owners must first attend an orientation.

Ramsey County requires in-person orientation, which is offered once a month, whileHennepin County allows people to take a 30-minute online orientation and submit their application immediately. Hennepin County’s online orientation can be completed in four separate languages: Somali, Spanish, English and Hmong.

The orientation presentation  explains the “many benefits” provided to licensed providers, including food programs, eligibility for loans and grants, and small business tax benefits.At the end of the orientation, the county provides an email address to request the six-page Family Child Care Application Form. The document, which is not available to download, asks a series of questions relating to the applicant, which will be used to help conduct a background check.

Background Check

Hennepin County charges $49.10 for a background check per provider.

The background check form requires  applicants to list specific information about their living situation, such as who could be around children under their care, and add references.

The check does a deep dive into a person’s entire criminal record, which includes a juvenile record for people under the age of 28.

Additional checks include where the person has lived in the past five years and if they’ve received government benefits.

Training

Licensed providers must attend several hours of mandatory training before they are granted their license, according to requirements by the Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families.

The mandatory training includes a six-hour course titled “Supervising for Safety for Family Child Care” and a four-hour course on child development and learning and behavior guidance. Other required training includes “Pediatric First Aid & Pediatric Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation,” “Reducing the Risk of Sudden Unexpected Infant Death,” “Reducing the Risk of Abusive Head Trauma,” and “Basic Education for Safe Travel” if transportation will be provided.

The classes are offered by the state and amount to $219 total, although some of the courses are free.

Additional adult caregivers must go through the same training, but people who identify as a “helper” are not required to do so.

Other courses are offered for providers who plan to take care of infants and children under school age.

Processing and Approval

The processing period can take up to half a year, depending on how many applications are going through the system and if an applicant makes mistakes on initial forms.

The Epoch Times contacted Hennepin County for information on how many applications were denied in 2025 and did not hear back by the time this report was published.

Once approved, the licensed provider attends a small group meeting on how to “prepare your home and begin your child care business,” including requirements for space, sleeping, equipment, and safety.

Grants

Minnesota offers training for providers seeking child care assistance funds and lets people apply through the state’s Provider Hub.

A licensed provider in Minnesota has access to the Provider Hub and is eligible to participate in the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), which uses federal funds to help low-income families pay for child care.

CCAP, which has 23,000 children enrolled in Minneapolis, uses federal money from the Child Care and Development Fund.

Child care providers apply for smaller grants, provided by the state, using the Child Care Aware Grants Program, which gives up to $1,000 for family child care and $2,500 to centers.

Applications for regional grants open once a year, but “soon-to-be licensed” providers can also apply for startup grants of up to $2,000 for family child care and $3,000 for child care centers.

Funding Freeze

Due to widespread fraud allegations in Minnesota, not all grants are available.

The Trump administration announced on Dec. 30, 2025, that it was freezing child care funding in all 50 states after Minnesota day care centers run by Somali residents became the epicenter of alleged fraud scandals.

The freeze impacts the Child Care and Development Fund, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, the Head Start program, and refugee assistance programs.

In 2025, the federal government provided nearly $2.4 billion to the Child Care and Development Fund, $7.35 billion to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and $869 million the Social Services Block Grant.

Minnesota received 7.7 percent ($184.9 million) of the money allocated to the Child Care and Development fund in 2025, according to data provided by the Office of the Administration for Children and Families.

The state received 3.5 percent ($262 million) of the funds from Temporary Assistance for Needy Families in 2025, according to the state’s budget.

“Funds will be released only when states prove they are being spent legitimately,” Health and Human Services (HHS) Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill said during the announcement.

Controversies

Minnesota and its Somali population has received heavy criticism after allegations of widespread fraud surfaced in the state.

YouTuber Nick Shirley went viral after posting a video which featured a series of Somali-run day cares, seemingly empty, despite receiving federal funding.

The Epoch Times confirmed that Quality Learning Center, which was featured in Shirley’s video, closed shortly after a viral video showed its sign misspelled Learning as “Learing.”

The scandals led Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to drop out of his bid for reelection on Jan. 5, even though he blamed the alleged fraud on “an organized group of criminals,” as opposed to the state’s oversight.

“Every minute I spend defending my own political interest would be a minute I can’t spend defending the people of Minnesota against the criminals who prey on our generosity and the cynics who prey on our differences,” Walz wrote in his announcement that ended his bid for a third term as governor.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said that he is confident that the House will end the partial government shutdown that was initiated on Saturday after Congress failed to approve a measure to keep the government funded.

“We’ll get this done by Tuesday, I’m convinced,” Speaker Johnson said on “Fox News Sunday.”

“We do have to do it by a rule process, which will probably have to be on our own.”

However, Johnson did tell NBC's "Meet The Press" that “we have a logistical challenge of getting everyone in town," seemingly referring to transportation problems related to recent winter storms that left areas without power or canceled thousands of flights late last month.

The Speaker added that after conversations with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Republicans in the lower congressional chamber have “got to pass a rule and [will] probably do this mostly on our own,” adding that that’s “very unfortunate.”

“After the Senate acted over the weekend, we will now have 11 of 12 separate appropriations bills approved by both chambers,” Johnson added.

“Because they modified our package, they sent it over a little differently, which means we’ve got to address the bills again.”

As Jack Phillips reports for The Epoch Times, the U.S. government entered a brief shutdown on Saturday after Congress failed to approve a deal to keep a wide swath of operations funded. The Senate easily passed a spending package on Jan. 30, but the House of Representatives is currently out of town.

Johnson, whose party has a razor-thin majority in the House, told NBC on Sunday that the GOP’s intention is to fund all agencies except for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the agency that runs Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and others, by this Tuesday.

When that happens, he added, “then we will have two weeks of good faith negotiations to figure it out.”

Democrats are demanding reforms to ICE, such as requiring mandatory body cameras, and they also want to see the end of roving patrols and ICE agents’ use of face masks.

Lawmakers have said they would seek to shut down the government after two protesters were shot in Minneapolis last month while clashing with federal agents.

“I just don’t see how, in good conscience, Democrats can vote for continuing ICE funding” after the shootings, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) told “Meet the Press” on Sunday.

The Trump administration may make changes to some DHS practices but ICE agents are still likely to wear masks to protect their identities, Johnson said.

“There’s been tragedies in Minnesota and in Minneapolis in particular, brought about in large measure by the circumstances on the ground,” Johnson said, adding that agitators have been doxxing and threatening ICE agents.

He added that the “reason that ICE agents wear masks is to protect their own identities and protect their own families, and in some circumstances, they’ve had a price put on their heads effectively by local officials. And that’s what’s created the dangerous conditions.”

In multiple news releases, DHS said that violent attacks on ICE agents have skyrocketed in recent months under the Trump administration, which has vowed to deport large numbers of illegal immigrants—particularly those with violent criminal records. In October 2025, a man armed with a rifle opened fire on an ICE office in Dallas, killing at least two people before he killed himself.

DHS in January said that a 1,300 percent increase in assaults on ICE agents has been reported, while there has been an 8,000 percent increase in death threats and a 3,200 percent increase in vehicular attacks. In one of the Minneapolis shootings, video footage showed a protester, later identified as Renee Good, hit an agent with her vehicle as she tried to escape apprehension. The agent reacted by shooting and killing her.

The shutdown comes just weeks after the longest government shutdown in history ended in mid-November 2025.

We're gonna need a bigger cork board. 

As far as massive distractions go, the latest Epstein files release seems to be all anyone is talking about. Not only do they mix random and salacious claims called into the FBI tip line (which could have been lodged by anyone for any reason - so you should assign low value to those), there are tons of new, high-value details - largely exposing people for lying about their relationship with Epstein. 

Related:

Latest Epstein Release Catches Goldman's Top Lawyer In Massive Lie

Latest Epstein Emails Reveal Bill Gates Slipped Wife Antibiotics For STD He Got From Russian Hookers

Palmer Luckey One-Shots Jason Calacanis Over Epstein Ties

Other claims have been debunked, such as Elon Musk's 'Epstein Island Vacation' email which is found nowhere in the actual release. 

We've also got a crazy two-hour interview between Epstein and Steve Bannon recorded months before his 2019 arrest, and a ton of other things we still need to get to. 

Lutnick Too!

Commerce Secretary and billionaire Howard Lutnick features in the new Epstein files - having once planned a trip to Epstein's private island. 

The trip, planned in 2012, came years after Lutnick claimed he cut all ties with the pedophile. Yet in December of that year, Lutnick sent an email to Epstein saying that he had a group of people, including his wife and children and another family, who were visiting the Caribbean - and inquired as to where Epstein was located and whether they could visit for a meal.

Epstein, replying through an assistant, set up a lunch gathering. 

When reached for comment, Lutnick told the NY Times "I spent zero time with him," before hanging up. 

The documents suggest the visit did occur. The gathering was set for Dec. 23, 2012. A day later, an assistant to Mr. Epstein forwarded Mr. Lutnick a message from Mr. Epstein: “Nice seeing you,” it said.

In a podcast interview last year, Mr. Lutnick claimed that around 2005, he and his wife had been so revolted by Mr. Epstein that they decided not to associate with him again.

Mr. Lutnick said in the interview that Mr. Epstein invited them to tour his Upper East Side mansion, next door to Mr. Lutnick’s own home. When they noticed a massage table in the middle of a room, Mr. Lutnick recalled, Mr. Epstein explained that he received “the right kind of massage” every day. Mr. Lutnick said that he and his wife quickly left and decided to “never be in a room with that disgusting person ever again.”

Except, that was complete bullshit (the running theme with these new releases). 

Lutnick's connection to Epstein isn't a huge surprise after a 2019 Crain's investigation found that Epstein had significant links to the property next to his infamous Manhattan townhouse at 9 East 71st Street. 

Crain's investigation found that Epstein's history at the address is entangled with the adjacent property, 11 E. 71st St., now home to billionaire Howard Lutnick—as well as with 301 E. 66th St., a building belonging to Epstein's brother.

An entity called the SAM Conversion Corp. purchased 11 E. 71st St. in 1988, more than a year before the Nine East 71st Street Corp. bought the former school that would become Epstein's domicile. At the time, both companies used a Columbus, Ohio, address associated with Limited Brands founder Leslie Wexner, Epstein's mentor and client.

In 1992 SAM Conversion Corp. sold 11 E. 71st St. to the 11 East 71st Street Trust for "ten dollars and other valuable consideration paid by the party of the second part," records show. Martha Stark, former commissioner of the city Department of Finance, told Crain's that the $10 figure is a placeholder used in many real estate sales—a holdover from a period when the value of property transactions was not publicly disclosed.

...

In 1998 Comet Trust sold 11 E. 71st St. to Lutnick, again for "10 dollars and other valuable consideration." The real estate transfer tax payment came to $106,400, from which Stark estimated the actual price to have been $7.6 million.

Lutnick, now the CEO of financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, took out a $4 million mortgage on the property the same day as the sale. His spokesperson did not reply by press time to requests for comment on the property's history and his relationship with his next-door neighbor.

These are the people governing us...