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Rapid Response 47 @RapidResponse47

The U.S. has officially declared the following as Foreign Terrorist Organizations: Tren de Aragua, MS-13, the Sinaloa Cartel, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, the United Cartels, the Gulf Cartel, the Northeast Cartel, and the Michoacán Family.

Meghan Markle is trying to brand herself as a tradwife influencer or something.

Some of you may have heard whispers about what I've been creating. In two weeks, my series on @netflix launches -- but there's something else I've been working on. I'm thrilled to introduce you to As Ever -- a brand that I created and have poured my heart into. 'As ever' means 'as it's always been' or some even say 'in the same way as always'. If you've followed along since my days of creating The Tig, you'll know this couldn't be truer for me. This new chapter is an extension of what has always been my love language, beautifully weaving together everything I cherish -- food, gardening, entertaining, thoughtful living, and finding joy in the everyday. I will keep sharing behind the scenes tidbits with you here as we ramp up to launch, and I can't wait for you to get your hands on everything we've been creating. Sending lots of love...

Absolutely, when I think about Prince-Hunting Golddigger Meghan Markle, I always think about her "love language" of the "everyday," simple pleasures of life.

PJ Media's Sarah Anderson:

Over the last six or seven years, Meghan Markle's attempts at selling anything substantial have failed almost every time. Her fake podcasting career was short-lived. With the exception of a "documentary" designed to mock her husband's family, the one that most people seemingly only viewed to hate-watch, she has yet to make much of anything out of her huge Netflix contract. And in 2024, she launched a "lifestyle brand" with the pretentious "American Riviera Orchard" name. As best I can tell, the only thing that ever came from it was that she sent some strawberry jams to celebrities.

...

"'As Ever' essentially means 'as it always been,'" she says with a giggle, adding, "And if you followed me since 2014... you know I've always loved cooking and craft and gardening. This is what I do. And I haven't been able to share it with you in the same way for the past few years, but now I can... Of course, there will be fruit preserves. I think we're all clear at this point that jam is my jam. But there are so many more products that I just love that I use in my home, and it's now it's time to share it with you."

And I think that's the problem. It's still not exactly clear what kind of products Megs will sell at this point -- besides jam, apparently -- and that's because ultimately, no matter what she does, her product ends up being herself. Meghan thinks she's likable and talented enough to become some sort of big media personality based on her Meghan Markle-ness alone. She keeps throwing new ideas against the wall and hoping they stick. At the moment, she fancies herself the next Martha Stewart, but all she'll ever be to most people is the next Wallis Simpson.

I don't know what these two talentless nobodies are going to do for money. I know they have some now, but they're only in their 30s. How are they going to provide for themselves for the next 40-60 years?

A Spanish town is accusing Little Miss Love Language of stealing their town logo.

Civic bosses in the Mallorca village of Porreres reportedly claimed that Markle copied the town's traditional coat of arms by including a single palm tree with two hummingbirds hovering on either side of it on her As Ever logo.

Mayor Xisca Mora told local newspaper Ara Balears that the similarities between the coat of arms and the logo are "surreal."

She also claimed that the town hall is considering whether or not to take legal action against the duchess.

"I don't know if she visited some agritourism sites and saw the coat of arms, because the photo on her website is taken from Mallorca," said Mora.

It is the same design.

I don't know if you can copyright a town's coat of arms, though. Seems unlikely.

Speaking of rebranding: The defense industry is scrambling to hide/"rebrand" its illegal, discriminatory embrace of DEI.

A month ahead of the #NatSecGirlSquad conference in March, organizer Maggie Feldman-Piltch is facing a problem that has been unprecedented in her 10 years of putting on the event.

In the wake of President Donald Trump's Jan. 21 executive order, which directs federal contractors to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices, there has been radio silence from defense companies who previously bought exhibit space, underwrote meals and otherwise sponsored the conference.

"Nobody," she said, "is returning emails."

It's just one example of how, in the wake of Trump's executive order, defense contractors are beating a hasty retreat from their previous commitments to DEI initiatives and reshaping their public-facing images to fit the administration's vision -- spelled out in felt-tip pen by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in his first memo to the Pentagon, that "DoD ≠ DEI."

Major defense primes are scrubbing their websites to remove references to DEI, including pulling down content associated with minority employees or celebrations like Black History Month. Breaking Defense found that large defense companies like BAE Systems, General Dynamics, L3Harris, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and RTX have clumsily removed webpages associated with previous DEI initiatives, which still appear in search engine results but redirect to dead links.

One industry official, who Breaking Defense granted anonymity to discuss sensitive internal matters, said that defense companies are struggling to understand exactly which activities fall under the umbrella of "illegal DEI."

A company maintaining a DEI department or employing officials hired solely to enact DEI practices would likely run afoul of the executive order, but other longstanding practices aimed at recruiting talent and fostering professional development of employees reside in a gray area, where it will be up to companies to determine how much risk to take, the official said.

A lot of this is just fake posturing to make it harder to prove lawsuits -- right now they're providing the evidence for their invidious discrimination. So they're just scrubbing their official communications so as to not admit invidious discrimination, while intending to continue doing it.

I saw an article about a Michigan school which changed the title of its DEI department to "Community Engagement" or something to pretend to comply with Trump's ban on schools receiving federal funding if they practice DEI. We're going to see a lot of simple name changes.

Libs of TikTok @libsoftiktok UNC Chapel Hill received a $3.8 million grant from the NIH to study the impact of tobacco disparities on Black and LGBTQ people.

We funded a study on cigarette accessibility for gay people.

Why Trump is targeting the AP: It's because the AP's highly-politicized "stylebook" is the leftwing media's dictionary for Orwellian redefinitions of common words for propaganda purposes.

If they routinely redefine words to support Democrat policies, then they can do the same service for Trump, huh?

The big picture: By spotlighting AP, Trump is amplifying Republican and conservative criticisms that the AP Stylebook, a first reference for most U.S. news organizations, shapes political dialogue by favoring liberal words and phrases concerning gender, immigration, race and law enforcement.

"This isn't just about the Gulf of America," White House deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich told Axios. "This is about AP weaponizing language through their stylebook to push a partisan worldview in contrast with the traditional and deeply held beliefs of many Americans and many people around the world."

The dispute with AP is part of Trump's broader effort to discredit legacy media outlets and the public's trust in the press -- already at a record low.

By the way, Trump's "attack" on the AP is as minor and small-ball as it gets. The AP can still come to the White House briefing room.

The big "attack" the media is shrieking about is that... the AP will no longer have a priviliged place on Air Force One. They can still ride on Air Force One, but ont up front. They'll have to sit in the back with the plebes.

The entitlement!

State of play: After barring AP reporters from covering several events with Trump last week, the White House said Friday that because the wire service "continues to ignore the lawful geographic name change of the Gulf of America," AP slots in the Oval Office on Air Force One "will now be opened up" to other reporters.

An AP reporter and photographer were blocked Friday from boarding Air Force One for Trump's weekend trip to Florida.

The White House said AP journalists "will retain their credentials to the White House complex."

While the media has pushed the completely-false and completely-debunked claim that transgenders are targeted for violent crimes more than other groups -- in fact, they are targeted less frequently -- they simultaneously continue to suppress stories about the real-life verified trend of trans people committing murders.

Authorities arrested a trans-identified double homicide suspect on Sunday, who has been accused of allegedly killing two female victims in New York. Alan "Alina" Abad, 19, of Westwood, New Jersey, was booked into the Rockland County Jail without bail. The killings are believed to have occurred inside an apartment unit located in Spring Valley, police said.

Spring Valley Police Chief Richard Oleszczuk said that officers discovered the victims around 8:30 pm on February 15 while conducting a welfare check. One victim was found dead at the scene, while the other victim was transported to a local hospital and later died from injuries. Authorities reported that the two victims sustained severe head injuries.

Abad was arrested the following day, February 16, and was booked into jail on first-degree murder charges. The suspect is a biological male who identifies as female.

According to investigators, Abad uploaded several videos to TikTok of himself dancing outside just hours before the gruesome murders. Police said the killings are believed to be isolated incidents and that the suspect and victims knew each other. It's unclear if the video was taken outside of the apartment complex.

You might wonder why this trend of trans people committing murders could be caused by trans people already suffering from mental illness, and you might wonder if that mental illness is worsened by the injection of experimental exogenous hormones.

But there's already a scientific answer to that question: Shut up, racist. The Lancet published the finding that you're all racists and must not question The Science (TM).

New York City introduced a "congestion pricing" scheme to charge people $15 just to drive in central NYC during the day. This scheme is called, probably accurately, a plan to keep middle-class drivers off the road so that rich drivers aren't slowed in traffic.

Due to public protest, Nurse Kathy Hochul paused the plan, and then came back with a new plan -- they'd only charge the plebes $9 just to enter NYC.

That's per-visit, not per month or something.

She actually tried to sell reducing this not-yet-implemented per-trip tax from $15 to $9 as saving New Yorkers money!

So if a mugger takes your wallet but then gives you your subway pass back, he's saved you that money, you see.

This plan required the approval of the US Department of Transportation. I assume this is so because federal highways run through NYC. Biden's super-competent Secretary of Transportation -- Pete Bootyjudge -- approved the scheme.

Sean Duffy just rescinded that approval.

Nick Sortor @nicksortor

Gov. Kathy Hochul is throwing a FIT that President Trump just axed New York's congestion pricing, saying it will result in budgetary issues.

How about cancelling the $12 BILLION you're spending on illegals if you're worried about the budget, Kathy?

That'd be a fantastic start!

Disney-owned ABC "News" is upset because legal immigrants fear that Trump will deport them -- a fear entirely concocted by leftwing propaganda networks like ABC.

It's as stupid and gay as you were imagining.

There's a funny backstory to Trump's firing of the Kennedy Center board. Joe Biden insisted on firing Sean Spicer from a service board he had been appointed to. Biden demanded that he resign by September 1, 2021, despite the fact that his term was due to expire on November 1, 2021 anyway. He was just petty and wanted Spicer out ASAP.

Although Spicer felt it wasn't worth it to even fight the firing, he and Russ Vought were persuaded to sue Biden in court. Their goal: to get a judge and an appeals court to rule that the president had unlimited, unreviewable power to fire any appointee in any agency. He wanted to prepare a precedent for Trump (or whichever Republican president came next).

A judge indignantly ruled against Spicer -- how dare he question the president's power to fire people as he pleased! And an appeals court affirmed the decision.

Spicer told Glenn Beck that when Democrats advised the fired Kennedy Center grifters to sue Trump, they told them, "We can't, there's a court ruling from just a couple of years ago giving Trump the power to fire them all. Biden v. Spicer. It's a lock-tight precedent."

posted by Ace at 06:14 PM

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