ONT Madness

—WeirdDave

Howdy Horde! Not much of an ONT tonight I'm afraid. I had car trouble tonight and just got in. What can you do? Most of y'all will be discussing March Madness anyway. I do have a few links to share.

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Hidden Mother Cafe

—Ace

A whole series of weird, creepy "hidden mother" photographs.

Apparently:

Hidden mother photography is a genre of photography common in the Victorian era in which young children were photographed with their mother present but hidden in the photograph. It arose from the need to keep children still while the photograph was taken due to the long exposure times of early cameras.

The daguerreotypes that became publicly available during the 1840s had exposure times from tens of seconds to several minutes. While exposure times shrank as photographic technology developed, to get a clear picture of a child during the 19th century the child had to be persuaded to stay still, which could be difficult to achieve. One technique was for the mother--or sometimes the father, a nanny or the photographer's assistant--to be hidden within the frame, often behind curtains, under cloaks, or disguised as chairs. Mothers were also sometimes obscured simply by removing parts of the photograph afterward, or by them standing slightly off to one side so they could be cropped out. How successfully the mother was hidden varied. Sometimes, simply draped with fabric, their shape would be obvious. In some photographs, arms are clearly visible. A paper overlay could be used when framing the photograph to hide the parts showing the mother, focusing on the child instead The practice of hidden mother photography continued into the 1920s, fading away as cameras became more ubiquitous and exposure times became faster, rendering need to hold small children rigidly still no longer necessary.

It doesn't say why the mother had to be covered. I imagine the baby would keep turning to look at the mother, if it saw the mother, so they hid her under a carpet.

Capybaras are even cuter as babies because of course they are.

Pigeon has discovered a new way of hoarding food. Might make it hard to fly away with his haul, though.

You ever see an action movie and the hero is "hidden" up on the ceiling but the ceiling isn't that high and you're like, "There's no way if someone walked into that room he wouldn't naturally just see the guy perched on the ceiling. You just see it. Your cone of vision extends upwards, too."

That always bothers me. But this cat suggests that maybe it's real.

Speaking of action movies: Heroic entrance into a jeep.

"Good garden dog" helps his master bury the potatoes he's planting.

Magician wows the audience.

Have you ever seen snails eating?

Come out to the coast, we'll buy the dog a trampoline, we'll have a few laughs...

Dog takes his ailing fren out for a walk.

Cadyshack was real.

Seal makes human surfers look like n00bz.

Pet owners: I have no idea why I'm always exhausted every morning! Definitely watch through 2am.

Puppy and baby.

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New York's Highest Court Issues Shockingly Sane Ruling: It's Against the Law for Illegal Aliens to Vote, Period, In Local Elections as Well as Federal Ones

—Ace

Finally, a non-insane ruling from the high court of New York State:

Breanna Morello @BreannaMorello

New York's highest court just ruled against NYC's law allowing non-citizens to vote.

Voting is limited to citizens, the court ruled.

It was a 6-to-1 decision.

Would they have ruled this way before the election, before Trump announced to the world that Woke Is Dead?

New York's top court has struck down a law that would have let noncitizens vote in New York City elections, with the court's progressive majority overwhelmingly siding with Republicans who challenged the idea.

The law would have made more than 800,000 people eligible to vote in municipal contests such as mayoral races.

"We file some lawsuits that are stretches," said Joe Borelli, the former Republican minority leader of the New York City Council and one of the plaintiffs who challenged the law. "This one was, from the beginning, an open-shut case."

The law was approved in the waning days of Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration. When neither he nor successor Eric Adams issued a veto, it automatically became law in early 2022.

The legal battles since then have centered on language in the state constitution that says "every citizen shall be entitled to vote at every election for all officers elected by the people."

Republicans argued that this prohibits all noncitizens from casting ballots. Democrats on the City Council who defended the law said this language should be viewed as a floor rather than a ceiling, and that local governments have the power to expand the franchise further if they wish.

In a decision handed down by the Court of Appeals on Thursday, the judges brushed off the Democratic argument by a 6-1 margin.

"Under that interpretation, municipalities are free to enact legislation that would enable anyone to vote -- including ... thirteen-year-old children," Chief Judge Rowan Wilson wrote for the majority.

"It is plain from the language and restrictions contained in [the state constitution] that 'citizen' is not meant as a floor, but as a condition of voter eligibility: the franchise extends only to citizens whose right to vote is established by proper proofs," Wilson wrote.

In some related immigration news:

"We Finally Got You:" ICE arrests illegal alien who made herself a cause celebre when she moved herself and her three children into a church basement and demanded it provide her sanctuary.

'We Finally Got You.' Immigrant-Rights Advocate Arrested in Colorado. Jeanette Vizguerra, who made national news evading deportation in a church basement, is the latest activist to be taken into custody by federal immigration agents.

An undocumented woman in Denver who became a symbol of immigrant resistance during President Trump's first term as she evaded deportation was arrested at work on Monday by federal immigration agents, her family and immigrant activists said.
Jeanette Vizguerra, 53, had been on her break at a Target store near Denver when immigration agents took her into custody, said Jordan Garcia, an immigrant-rights advocate with the American Friends Service Committee who has known Ms. Vizguerra for 15 years.

Recounting details of the arrest that Ms. Vizguerra had relayed to her family, Mr. Garcia said one of the agents told her, "We finally got you."

Ms. Vizguerra drew national attention when, in early 2017, she packed her clothes and moved with her three youngest children into a church basement in Colorado, hoping that the sanctuary of a house of worship would protect her from Mr. Trump's deportation plans. In 2021, she received a one-year stay of deportation from the Biden administration, but friends said Tuesday she was aware of her peril.

Her detention has already stirred a backlash from Colorado Democratic politicians and immigrant-rights supporters, who accused the Trump administration of trying to silence critics of its immigration crackdown.

Mayor Mike Johnston of Denver condemned Ms. Vizguerra's arrest as a "Putin-style persecution of political dissidents" that had ensnared a working-class mother who had dedicated her life to helping other undocumented immigrants.

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DHS Officials Arrest a Georgetown Grad Student With Alleged Hamas Connections and a History of Promoting Antisemtism and Pushing Pro-Terror Propaganda

—Ace

Get out.

U.S. immigration authorities have detained a Georgetown University graduate student from India, who also teaches at the school, for allegedly having close ties to Hamas and spreading the terrorist group's propaganda and "promoting antisemitism on social media."

The detainee, Badar Khan Suri, was arrested Monday outside of his home in Arlington, Virginia, his attorney, Hassan Ahmad, said Wednesday.

Ahmad said his client is in the U.S. on a student visa to teach at the school. He also said the authorities who arrested Suri said they were with the Department of Homeland Security and informed him that his visa had been revoked by the government.

"Suri has close connections to a known or suspected terrorist, who is a senior advisor to Hamas," Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin wrote on X. "The Secretary of State issued a determination on March 15, 2025 that Suri's activities and presence in the United States rendered him deportable under INA section 237(a)(4)(C)(i).

McLaughlin cited a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act that "renders an alien deportable if the Secretary of State has reasonable grounds to believe that their presence or activities in the United States would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences."

Georgetown University, a private Jesuit college in Washington, D.C., said it wasn't aware of Suri doing anything wrong, according to NBC News.

Meanwhile, the FBI has stopped hunting grandmothers in red hats and is now rolling up long-sought fugitives.

FBI Director Kash Patel @FBIDirectorKash

BREAKING: I can now confirm that last night, working with @TheJusticeDept
and other interagency partners, the FBI has extradited one of our "Ten Most Wanted" from Mexico -- one we believe to be a key senior leader of MS-13, Francisco Javier Roman-Bardales.

He was arrested in Mexico and is being transported within the U.S. as we speak, where he will face American justice.

This is a major victory both for our law enforcement partners and for a safer America.

Thank you to our brave personnel for executing the mission. And thank you to Mexico's SSPC and FGE teams for their support of the FBI in this investigation and arrest.

MXM:

FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed Tuesday that one of the nation's most wanted fugitives, Francisco Javier Román-Bardales, has been successfully extradited from Mexico and is now in U.S. custody. Román-Bardales, a senior figure within the violent MS-13 gang, was arrested in Veracruz and immediately processed for extradition under joint efforts by U.S. and Mexican authorities.

Patel praised the mission's execution, thanking American personnel and Mexican law enforcement for their cooperation. "This is a major victory both for our law enforcement partners and for a safer America," he stated.

Román-Bardales has been charged in the United States with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, racketeering, and human trafficking, among other serious offenses. He is accused of orchestrating violent attacks on civilians and rival gangs, as well as overseeing MS-13's extensive drug trafficking and extortion networks.

The Trump administration has classified MS-13 as a terrorist organization, broadening the legal framework for pursuing its members. Some officials argue that this designation could pave the way for U.S. strikes against cartel operations in Mexico.

The DHS is also seizing smuggled drugs on the seas.

Homeland Security: Coast Guard has seized $500M of drugs in recent months

BY Susan Carpenter

The U.S. Coast Guard has seized more than $500 million worth of cocaine and marijuana off the coasts of Mexico, South America and Central America in recent months, the Department of Homeland Security announced Thursday.

In what Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called "an unprecedented seizure of illicit drugs," two Coast Guard vessels intercepted over 45,000 pounds of cocaine and 50 pounds of marijuana headed for the U.S.
What You Need To Know

The U.S. Coast Guard has seized more than $500,000 million worth of cocaine and marijuana off the coast of Mexico, the Department of Homeland Security announced Thursday

Two Coast Guard vessels intercepted over 45,000 pounds of cocaine and 50 pounds of marijuana headed for the U.S. in recent months

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called it "an unprecedented seizure of illicit drugs"

Many of the drug cartels the Coast Guard encountered in its recent cocaine seizures were among the eight groups Secretary of State Marco Rubio designated as foreign terrorist organizations last month

"This action is a testimony to President Trump's commitment to delivering for the American people and his unwavering dedication to our military strength, to our border security, our law enforcement, to our producing incredible results," Noem said at a portside event where she was flanked by Coast Guard officers. "His leadership is making America safe again."

The drug seizure is the result of 14 different interdictions of drug-smuggling vessels off the coasts of Mexico, South America and Central America, four of which happened over a span of 15 minutes.

Since President Donald Trump was sworn in, the U.S. has seized over 80,000 pounds of illegal drugs, according to U.S. Coast Guard acting Commandant Adm. Kevin Lunday. The drugs were intercepted by the Coast Guard in partnership with the departments of Homeland Security, Justice and Defense and 22 Central American, South American and European partners.

It's amazing what a government can do when it's focused on actual government functions, rather than being weaponized into the Armed Wing of the Democrat Party.

Trump, Republicans At All-Time High in Public Approval, Says (Liberally-Skewed) Fox News Poll

—Ace

As you know, Fox News' polls always skew Democrat because their in-house polling expert is himself a partisan left-wing Hillary Clinton donor. Because FoxNews is a garbage organization that cons the rubes.

But even their skewed poll shows Trump and Republicans at their highest approval rates ever.

Nearly two months into his second term, President Donald Trump's approval rating matches his all-time high.

Congressional Republicans also enjoy record ratings, while views of congressional Democrats tumble near an all-time low, according to the latest Fox News Poll.

Half of voters, 49%, approve of the job Trump is doing as president, matching his high from April 2020. That's also better than at the same point in his first term (43% approved in March 2017). He is at high marks among key groups, including women, Black voters and voters under age 30. (For reference, in January, a 52% majority of voters approved of the job Trump was doing handling the presidential transition.)

Keep in mind that Trump has made major big-time moves since the transition, many of which are -- or would have been, in years passed -- extremely controversial. To have majority support while you're tearing down the entire Old Order is amazing.

His approval rate will go higher once his crusade to bring down the Regime is accomplished and he passes into a more peaceful stage of his presidency.

Depending on how the bets he's making now turn out, this could well be the lowest level of support he'll see during his second term. I think most of these bets will pay off, politically.

Nine in 10 Republicans approve of Trump, while the same number of Democrats disapprove. Six in 10 Independents disapprove of his job performance.

Don't worry about the independents being against us. "Independent" is a malleable category with people drifting in and out of it. As the Republican Party coalesced around Trump, liberal Republicans either became Democrats, or were given New York Times columnist jobs, or became independents. Meanwhile, many Republican leaners who had been Republican-aligned independents simply began identifying as Republicans.

Also, many Democrats who are either are worried that the party has become too woke and too crazy -- or are angry that the party isn't woke and crazy enough -- now call themselves "independents."

This is a change from years past when "independents" were a Republican-leaning group. Now most Republican leaners are simply Republicans.

Overall, 51% disapprove of the job Trump is doing, including 45% who strongly disapprove.

...

Congressional Republicans hit their highest approval rating ever this month, as 43% of voters approve and 55% disapprove. While that is upside down by 12 points, it still constitutes a significant improvement from the 36-point net negative rating in October 2023 and the 55-point low a decade ago.

News across the aisle isn't as rosy. For Democrats in Congress, 66% disapprove of the job they are doing, with only 30% approving -- nearly matching their record low of 29% approval in November 2013. The current 36-point deficit represents a marked decline from the 23-point difference in October 2023, the last time the question was asked (37% approve, 60% disapprove), and the high of +10 in April 2009 (50-40%).

2013 was a time when the Tea Party was thriving -- but opposed by the Republican Party itself. Now the Republican Party has been taken over by Tea Party types, who are largely MAGA now.

My point is: The Republican Party was not poised to capitalize on Democrat unpopularity in 2013, as Mitch McConnell considered his own base his primary political opponent. Now it is unified, and well-positioned to make the Democrats pay for their extremism and pro-terrorism insurrectionary tendencies.

The boost to the GOP approval is primarily attributable to more Republicans backing their party today (88%) than in October 2023 (54%). Again, the partisan contrast is striking, as only 49% of Democrats approve of their party's lawmakers today vs. 74% in 2023.

...

Vice President JD Vance's job rating is in negative territory by 8 points: 45% approve, 53% disapprove. Among Republicans, his approval (85%) is slightly lower than Trump's (92%) and Congressional Republicans' (88%).

By an 18-point margin, voters disapprove of the job Elon Musk is doing at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) (40% approve, 58% disapprove). Most Republicans (78%) approve, while nearly all Democrats disapprove (93%).

Secretary of State Marco Rubio breaks even with 47% both approving and disapproving. He is the only administration official who receives double-digit approval from Democrats (11%).

Don't worry about the Democrats, though: They have increased their hold on the AWFLs, even as the AWFLs drive every other bloc out of the party.

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Trump Set to Sign Executive Order Abolishing the Department of Education

—Ace

I don't think he can abolish by executive order, as it is authorized by Congress.

A tactic he's using -- I think he did this with USAID -- is to defund/dismantle agencies to the "minimum level allowed by law." I expect that's what he'll do here -- he'll order government lawyers to look into the very minimum amount of funding and functionality of the DoEd required by law, and cut it to that level.

Congress will have to take it from there.

President Donald Trump will sign an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education, fulfilling a major campaign promise. The move shifts education authority back to states and parents, sparking fierce debate from both supporters and critics.

Key Details:

Trump has long criticized the agency, calling it a hub for "radicals, zealots, and Marxists."

White House says the order will "empower parents" and refocus education on student outcomes.

Critics, including teachers' unions, argue that only Congress can legally abolish the department.

The executive order follows the Senate confirmation of Linda McMahon as Secretary of Education, who pledged to oversee the agency's closure.

Congressional approval is required for full dissolution, but Trump aims to reduce its influence immediately.

...

"The federal government has failed American students," Trump said in a statement. "For too long, unelected bureaucrats in Washington have pushed radical agendas while test scores plummet. It's time to return power to parents and local schools."

The White House justified the decision by pointing to declining student performance, citing National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores, which reveal falling proficiency in math and reading. Additionally, the administration highlighted the strain placed on public schools by illegal immigration, arguing that resources have been diverted away from American students.

"Over the past four years, Democrats have allowed millions of illegal minors into the country, straining school resources," said Harrison Fields, White House principal deputy press secretary. "Coupled with CRT and DEI indoctrination, this is harming our most vulnerable students."

...

Despite Trump's executive order, Congress holds the ultimate authority to eliminate the agency. The Constitution's Article II requires legislative approval, and with only 53 Republican senators, the White House faces an uphill battle.

Trump is making Reagan look like a Bush.

Speaking of Trump ending things that never should have begun:

President Donald Trump held a "very good" call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday, following a preliminary agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin one day earlier. Trump said the discussions focused on aligning Ukraine and Russia's "requests and needs" and that the ceasefire negotiations remain "on track."

Key Details:

Trump announced the call with Zelenskyy on Truth Social, stating it lasted about an hour and was largely based on the conversation he had with Putin on Tuesday. "Just completed a very good telephone call with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine," he wrote, adding that the talks centered on ensuring both sides' concerns were addressed.

Putin agreed to halt strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure for 30 days, though the ceasefire has yet to extend to frontline combat or civilian areas. Special envoy Steve Witkoff suggested a full ceasefire could be reached in the coming weeks.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz will return to Saudi Arabia on Sunday to continue ceasefire negotiations, with a potential Trump-Putin meeting also on the table. It remains unclear whether a Ukrainian delegation will attend.

Trantifa Activist -- or, a "Woman" as the Media Insists -- Arrested In Connection With Explosives Found at a Tesla Dealership She Was "Protesting"

—Ace

"Woman."

Police in Loveland, Colorado have arrested a suspect in connection with several "offensive and hateful" vandalism incidents involving incendiary devices at the local Tesla dealership. The suspect, who goes by the name Lucy Grace Nelson, is a biological male (formerly Justin Thomas Nelson). The alleged "trantifa" activist was arrested just before midnight on Monday after a weeks long investigation and "incorrectly booked" into the Larimer County Jail as a female, according to the Post Millennial's Andy Ngo on X.

All the major media outlets, including the Denver Post, CBS News, ABC News, NBC News, CNN, and Fox News, are referring to Nelson as a woman in their reports.

Police launched the investigation on Jan. 29 after they found incendiary devices on the scene of the first vandalism incident, according to a Loveland Police press release.

Investigators said two more incidents occurred at the dealership on Feb. 2 and Feb. 7. Photos and video taken at the dealership after the Feb 7 incident showed several Cybertrucks and other Teslas with red X's spray painted across the windshields, and graffiti on the building reading "NAZI CAR." There was also reportedly broken glass in the lot and incendiary devices found at the scene.

Investigators said that Nelson, 42, returned to Tesla dealership Monday evening "while in possession of additional incendiary devices along with materials attributed to vandalism" and that detectives were able to apprehend him before more damage occurred.

The attacks came amid left-wing calls to boycott Tesla to protest what agitators reportedly call "Elon Musk's moves to destroy our democracy."

Nelson "has a long history of posts obsessing about fighting fascism and white supremacy," according to Ngo.

A year ago on Reddit, the trantifa agitator was actively calling for violence against the GOP, Reddit Lies posted on X.

More at the link, including this lady's history of indoctrinating minors into transgenderism via the internet.

DOGE Calls the Cops to Evict "US Institute of Peace" "Workers" Who Barricaded Themselves Inside Their Grifter Offices

—Ace

This particular grifter office refused to allow DOGE to even enter and sued to keep DOGE out. The judge, miraculously, declined to stop the president's appointed officials from doing their jobs.

This judge is Beryl Howell, the extremely partisan political actor who has granted TRO after TRO against Trump and eagerly sentenced J6ers to long terms in prison.

A federal judge on Wednesday declined to temporarily block the Department of Government Efficiency's (DOGE) takeover of the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP), after the organization said its power was seized without lawful authority.

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell expressed alarm about the manner in which DOGE accessed the building but said the now-fired board members likely don't have authority to sue in their official capacity, calling some aspects of the lawsuit "a stretch."

Howell declined to bar DOGE from accessing USIP's facilities and systems, acting in USIP's name or declare void the apparent removal of its board.

She also declined to forbid further trespass against the independent institute, after it said in court filings DOGE conducted a "literal trespass and takeover by force."

"I am very offended by how DOGE has operated at the institute and treated American citizens trying to do a job that they were statutorily tasked to do at the institute," Howell said. "But that concern about how this has gone down is not one that can sway me in my consideration of the factors for a [temporary restraining order], which is an emergency relief that is extraordinary."

F*** you.

Now DOGE comes in with a police presence to clear out the trash.

DOGE employees, with the aid of a master key and DC Metropolitan Police Department officers, finally gained control of the massive office building in Foggy Bottom on Monday, ending a standoff by US Institute of Peace bureaucrats barricaded in their offices. On Monday evening, DOGE employees accompanied by MPD officers and high-ranking administration officials stormed the building using a master key provided by the building security service, precipitating a brief scuffle before the building was liberated.

...

DOGE staffers returned Monday and found organized resistance to entry.

Contrary to earlier reporting by The Washington Post and The New York Times, which claimed the institute merely locked its doors, photographic evidence exclusively obtained by the [Daily Caller News Foundation] shows locks had been physically removed from the exterior doors, effectively destroying entry mechanisms. The official said USIP staff removed the locks.

Moreover, staff contacted Washington's Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) in an attempt to prevent DOGE personnel from entering, citing barricaded doors and security concerns. MPD officers later confirmed these obstructions upon arrival, further discrediting claims that USIP had only engaged in passive resistance. Much of USIP's leadership, including Moose, barricaded themselves on the building's fifth floor, closing window shades and blocking access points in a last-ditch effort to resist DOGE's entry, the official told the DCNF.

The obstruction didn't end at damaged doors. Prior to Monday's confrontation, USIP leaders disabled telephone lines, internet connections and other IT infrastructure, forcing communication among staff through walkie-talkies, according to the official. This deliberate effort to disrupt operations delayed DOGE's entry and added to the confusion during Monday's standoff.

Using a master key provided by the security contractor, Trump's team, accompanied by MPD officers, bypassed the damaged and barricaded entryway and "entered the facility through emergency stairs." Confronted with determined leadership and overwhelming force, resistance crumbled, and the insurrectionists exited the building.

Read the whole thing.

DOGE Shuts Down an Agency Which Seemingly Existed Only to Fill the Pockets of Its Barely-Working "Employees" -- They "Lived Like Kings"

—Ace

Luke Rosiak @lukerosiak

One of the 7 federal agencies shuttered by DOGE on Friday is the most DOGE-able agency of all time. FMCS (before the pandemic!) had a 9-story K Street tower for 60 employees. Its halls were lined with oil paintings of those employees, and other art purchased from the boss's wife

Luke Rosiak:

One of the seven small federal agencies that President Donald Trump ordered downsized or eliminated on Friday was rife with corruption, with its employees hiring friends and relatives, commissioning paintings of themselves, and using government credit cards to indulge in constant luxuries.

The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) occupied a nine-story office tower on D.C.'s K Street for only 60 employees, many of whom actually worked from home, prior to the pandemic. Its managers had luxury suites with full bathrooms; one manager would often be "in the shower" when she was needed, while another used her bathroom as a cigarette lounge. FMCS recorded its director as being on a years-long business trip to D.C. so he could have all of his meals and living expenses covered by taxpayers, simply for showing up to the office.

FMCS is a 230-employee agency that exists to serve as a voluntary mediator between unions and businesses. As an "independent agency," its director nominally reports to the president, but the agency is so small that in effect, there is no oversight at all -- and it showed, becoming a real-life caricature of all the excesses that the Department of Government Efficiency has alleged take place in government.

This reporter spent a year investigating the agency a decade ago, and I found egregious and self-serving violations of hiring, pay, contracting, and purchase card rules. One thing I could not discover is why the agency actually existed, other than to provide luxurious lifestyles for its employees. Endless junkets to resort destinations, which employees openly used to facilitate personal vacations, were justified as building awareness of the agency in the hopes that someone would actually want to use its voluntary services.

FMCS seemed, quite clearly, to exist for the benefit of those on its payroll, and not much else. One employee told me: "Let me give you the honest truth: A lot of FMCS employees don't do a hell of a lot, including myself. Personally, the reason that I've stayed is that I just don't feel like working that hard, plus the location on K Street is great, plus we all have these oversized offices with windows, plus management doesn't seem to care if we stay out at lunch a long time. Can you blame me?"

"Recreation and reception fund."

Top FMCS official George Cohen used a "recreation and reception fund" to order champagne and $200 coasters for his office, and to purchase artwork painted by his wife. The tiny agency commissioned paintings of its top employees -- as one employee told me, "like they were reigning kings or something...I've never seen anything like it before." It spent $2,402 retouching the portrait of someone who briefly held the top job in an acting capacity.

FMCS employees "unblocked" their government credit cards to turn off typical abuse protections, then used them to apparently fund personal expenses and simply bill anything they'd like to the government. One employee leased a BMW; another (IT director James Donnen) billed the government for his wife's cell phone, cable TV at both his home and his vacation home, and even his subscription to USA Today.

Employee Dan W. Funkhouser used his FMCS card to rent a storage unit near his home in rural Virginia, two hours from the office he supposedly worked at, which was used to store personal possessions such as a photo album of his dog, Buster. Funkhouser also spent $18,000 at a jewelry store near his house, and "destroyed all purchase card records upon leaving the agency," an audit said.

When Charles Burton retired from FMCS, he incorporated an LLC to which another FMCS employee paid $85,000 using his purchase card, listing it as a "Call Center Service," even though the company had neither a website nor a working phone.

When an accountant, Carol Booth, blew the whistle on financial abuses to the General Services Administration, which manages purchase cards and contracting, Cohen forced her to send an email (which he wrote under her name) rescinding her statement.

Like something out of "The Office," the employees spent an inordinate amount of time and money congratulating one another for being employed there and engaging in "work" that really amounted to pampering themselves.

One purchase was for $30,000 on trinkets marking employees' anniversaries. The agency's office was absurdly oversized, but it refused to move. It hired a consultant for a "Hallway Improvement Project" to decorate. It had an in-house gym for employees, and purchased a $1,000 TV for the gym, a $3,867 ice-maker, and a $560 stereo.

The expenses that were actually business-related were hardly better. It paid, for example, $895 "for Suzanne Nichter's enrollment in the English Essentials: A Grammar Refresher course" and $735 "for Lakisha Steward to attend Listening and Memory Skills Development Course."
All expenses paid lifestyle

FMCS used federal jobs as a spigot of cash for friends and relatives. Allison Beck, a former union lawyer who became a top FMCS official, employed her sister-in-law as a "special assistant," and an inspector general found evidence that she tried to create a high-level job for a friend.

FMCS employees allegedly steered contracts to friends, allowing them to write the "statement of work" that would be used to choose the contract winner -- resulting in, of course, their own selection. Such "trainers" were paid $1,500 per day per person to train FMCS's staff, plus $163 an hour for travel. When a low-level employee eventually said the extra travel pay ran afoul of federal rules, a contractor made clear he viewed it as an entitlement, huffing: "Work we have successfully performed for the agency for more than a decade -- at great personal sacrifice, I should add -- will be taken away unless we comply in an unquestioning manner with your edict."

Scot Beckenbaugh, a top agency official, was paid $174,000 a year, but that wasn't enough: He had his "duty station" listed as Iowa so that he could have all of his living expenses and food paid for in D.C., where he lived and worked, as if he was on a six-year-long business trip. When an employee raised the issue to an agency lawyer, the lawyer told him he "should not raise these issues ... it would open a can of worms."

FMCS hired a former mail carrier who lived in Pennsylvania, Lu-Ann Glaser, for a high-level, D.C.-based job, and agreed to pay for her to stay in a hotel for half of every month -- even though it would have been easy to find someone better qualified who didn't need to be put up in a hotel to simply do her job.

Paul Voight, a human resources official, was listed as living in D.C. even though he actually lived in Wisconsin, in order to fraudulently obtain higher cost-of-living pay. Voight's boss was Artur Pearlstein, who left the agency to become a law professor, and was then re-hired after his academic career imploded in a plagiarism scandal. His first move in his new job was terminating an independent investigation into FMCS staff abusing taxpayer funds for personal gain.

Cohen, for his part, steered work to his previous employer, despite signing ethics forms saying he would not.

Many of the agency's top employees lived outside of the typical Washington, D.C., commuting area, and only stopped in the area occasionally, in an era before telework was routine. Its CFO, Fran Leonard, would come to the office twice a week but leave by 2:00 p.m.

The agency had, inexplicably, an office in Honolulu.

It funded constant travel of its employees to exotic locales, on the pretext that it was drumming up business for the federal agency -- an admission that there was little demand for the agency's existence.

In one month, Beck traveled to Italy and Switzerland, where she conducted a business meeting -- over video chat. Then she went to Tunisia and an island off the coast of Georgia. She flew first class and forced the agency to reimburse her for mileage when she drove to her vacation home in Maine.

The agency had three full-time media relations staffers, none of whom would speak to me, almost certainly one of the only reporters to ever call.
Cash grants for insiders

The agency's existence is predicated on the idea that it is an impartial mediator, biased neither towards labor nor management. But its staff largely comes from a union background, and it gave out grants to promote union membership. But it was too incompetent to do much ideological damage; its employees' comfort always came before helping unions.

Anyone could request cash grants from the agency, with the only requirement that they mention some nexus with unions, however tortured. It doled out a seemingly random assortment of giveaways to private businesses, perhaps because they were the only ones who knew the grants existed.

It gave $63,000 to a hospital that went bankrupt; $51,000 to a childcare company to help it pay government licensing fees; and $57,000 to a company to "strengthen of culture of continuous improvement to drive us to world class excellence!"

What surprised me most about my FMCS investigation was what happened afterward: nothing. An inspector general made a referral to the FBI, but there were no prosecutions. Instead, President Barack Obama nominated a chief subject of the investigation to the top job.

A decade later, Trump has done what even the agency's own employees said should happen: shut it down.

Read the whole thing.

The Morning Rant: Minimalist Edition

—CBD

To the vast disappointment of the Forever-War^TM supporters, President Trump's efforts to end the pointless border war in Ukraine may be entering a new phase. Both the Z-man and Putin have agreed to end energy infrastructure attacks which, while it might seem incomplete and narrowly focused, is a boon for the people who are suffering. Z-man and Putin certainly aren't!

An incremental ceasefire leading to a total cessation of fighting might not be the quickest way to get to an end to this bloodbath, but President Trump is in his element as a negotiator, so it isn't surprising.

Putin is in a position of strength as he consolidates his military gains in Ukraine. Obviously it has gone very badly for Russia compared to their rosy and optimistic plans for a three day campaign, at which any student of Russian military history will smile and nod and say...Yup! pretty typical!

But Russia is much bigger than Ukraine, has shorter supply lines, and will, in the end, succeed in taking the territory it desires. Perhaps they have already accomplished their goals, and the current fighting is simply to wear down Ukraine to the point at which it must agree to whatever ceasefire is proposed, no matter how much worse than the one it was offered three years ago!

Zelenskyy Also Agrees to Limited Russia-Ukraine Cease-Fire in Call With Trump

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has agreed to a moratorium on attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure following a March 19 phone call with President Donald Trump.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz issued a statement on the Trump–Zelenskyy call, saying that the two leaders “agreed on a partial ceasefire against energy.”

Zelenskyy confirmed the development in a post on social media platform X, saying, “I supported this step, and Ukraine confirmed that we are ready to implement it.”

Trump’s and Zelenskyy’s phone conversation lasted about an hour and came a day after Trump proposed the moratorium on energy infrastructure attacks to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

How long will it take to achieve some sort of peace? My guess is that the fighting will gradually wind down without much in the way of formal agreements, in spite of the paper tigers of Europe pledging fealty to a free Ukraine and its pint-sized dictator. The grand alliance of the free nations of the West was never more than a fragile coalition willing to talk a tough stance...right up until it required actual sacrifice.

It is already fracturing!

Italy's Meloni Backs Trump's Peace Efforts in Ukraine, Urges 'Pragmatism' in Europe on Trade Talks

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni on Tuesday called for “pragmatism” to prevent an EU-US dispute over tariffs from escalating into a full-scale trade war, and expressed support for U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts for a ceasefire in Ukraine.

Speaking to the Italian Senate ahead of a meeting of EU leaders this week, Meloni made her first wide-ranging comments touching on Trump policies that have shaken Europe in the two months since he took office.

Meloni struck a diplomatic tone on tariffs and expressed favor for Trump’s moves to establish a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine as a possible pathway to end the war in Ukraine. She also ruled out sending Italian troops to Ukraine, and spoke against the proposal for a security force by Britain and France. And she pledged to forge ahead with a controversial and stalled plan to vet migrants outside of the EU borders in Albania.

Oh no! The head of government of an important European country has come out in support of Literally Hitler's plan for peace! And even worse, she doesn't want to send Italian troops to get chewed up for some nebulous and suspect goal. Does anyone really believe that short of a world war, Russia is going to be pushed out of Ukraine?

No, of course not. But Raytheon and Northrop Grumman and Pratt & Whitney, and Lockheed Martin sure are cheering for that! It is a testament to Donald Trump's independence from the military-industrial complex that he is not willing to commit American treasure and blood to a border dispute 4,000 miles away.

This is a war whose antecedents are not simply that Putin is a bad man. Regardless of how you feel about him and Russia, NATO has been pushing closer and closer to Russia's traditional borders, and only a jingoistic Russia-hating, war-loving retard would fail to understand that it was probably not a good idea.

Well, as NATO crumbles, perhaps it is incumbent upon the UK and France and Germany to step in, send troops and cash, and do what they are clamoring for! Yeah, that's not going to happen for a few reasons, the most important of which is that their militaries are a sadly diminished and ineffectual shell of what they once were. They will bluster and pontificate, but ultimately they will agree to Donald Trump's plan for a ceasefire, because they simply don't have a choice.

I guess I sound like a Putin supporter, but I'm really not. I just don't think that it is worth the blood and treasure of the West to intervene in a border dispute between two countries whose borders have been bouncing around for a very long time.

If both countries could lose, I would be happy!

[Crossposted at CutJibNewsletter and X]

Mid-Morning Art Thread

—CBD

Gustave Boyer in a Straw Hat
Paul Cézanne

The Morning Report — 3/ 20 /25

—J.J. Sefton

Good morning kids. Well, it is the first day of Spring, at least on the calendar, and as hope always or at least in theory, springs eternal, in that light, I thought I'd lead off today's Report with a headline and story that will surely put a big old smile on your face.

Greenpeace Loses Dakota Access Pipeline Trial, Faces Bankruptcy and Extinction

Energy Transfer named three Greenpeace entities — Greenpeace USA, Greenpeace International (based in the Netherlands), and Greenpeace Fund — as the organizers and funders of this sabotage. And on Wednesday, a North Dakota jury found that the infamous non-profit must pay the price for its actions. The nine-person and two-alternate jury deliberated for two and a half days before arriving at its unanimous verdict. . . For its part, Greenpeace has attempted to frame the lawsuit as a First Amendment issue with a dash of racism thrown into the mix. . . There will doubtlessly be an appeal — Greenpeace's Senior Legal Adviser, Deepa Padmanabha, said, “We know that this fight is not over.” But at any rate, this is a great day for Americans and people everywhere who are sick to death of environmentalists, BLM, and other disruptive, violent, and destructive Marxist mobs upending their lives under the guise of the right to protest. 

You might recall, also "Former Greenpeace Founder Patrick Moore Says Climate Change Based on False Narratives."

And now, a dose of realty in that Evil never rests. And I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop, or Molotov Cocktail to toss. Well, sadly, as we all know all is not sunshine and lollipops, so long as Leftists and the Democrat Party still exist, as you instinctively by now are aware and as most of the links will confirm. I assume the High Court in Hawaii, with it's Super-chief justices of Buch M. Danno, Mac A. Damia, Tai Nee Bubbles and Zulu As Kono will invoke the 11th Commandment of Marbury Maliki MAGA and declare this verdict null and void. While the 9 jurors who voted to convict are busy putting the flames out on the backs of their children.

Well, there's this not unrelated item: Along with all the others in the Domestic Affairs section.

A federal judge appointed by former President Barack Obama ruled Tuesday evening to block the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from terminating $20 billion in grants doled out through a Biden-era program.

Federal D.C. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan ruled that the EPA could not currently revoke money that the agency parked in accounts at Citibank in the final days of the Biden administration. The judge wrote that the Trump EPA “gave no legal justification for the termination” of the agreements with the recipients while the administration “vaguely” outlined its initial concerns with the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF). While Chutkan did temporarily block EPA from moving forward with its push to claw back the funds, she noted in her filing that the ruling does not permanently prevent the EPA from recovering the money. . . In a statement responding to Chutkan’s ruling, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said he will do all he can to regain control over the funds in question despite Tuesday’s developments.

Ah yes, Tanya (Russian name!!!!!!) Shitcan, the judge who was persecuting Trump in that trumped up insurrection case, nyet?!

Absolutely disgusting how the Left wraps itself in the Constitution while simultaneously ripping it to shreds and tossing it into a fire. If only the Left would do like their hapless asshole foot soldier at that Tesla dealership and set themselves on fire with their own Molotov Cocktail. That, or as Ace would so poetically say "go fuck themselves in the heart with a steak knife." Satan sez "I like my Filet of Donald Manes well done."



Along with corrupt courts, all the Democrat Left have is thuggery and violence. Meh once you have the former you have a green light for the latter.

When you believe you are the defenders of democracy, then you're a red nether hair's breadth away from the Einsatzgruppen. And this is their mindset. Make no mistake.

Have a great day.

And lastly, a quick shout-out and thank you for your continued support in hitting our tip jar. It truly is appreciated more than you can know. 

ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY
• We might not get the big reveals we want from all the files, but the more we pull back the curtain of the military-industrial complex, the more we can hope to end its out-of-control greed and bloodlust.
  Trump fulfills promise by releasing JFK files, giving a deeper understanding CIA operations in the 1960s
  
• Kurt Schlichter: Another of Trump’s superpowers – the ability to attract the dumbest enemies possible.
  Do Normal People Pay Any Attention at All to These Democrat Lunatics?
  
• Victor Davis Hanson: The left knowingly pushed falsehoods on COVID, Biden’s fitness, Hunter’s laptop, and the border—dividing the nation while facing no accountability. (But it was for our own good/sarc!!! - jjs)
  The Left Knew They Were Lying to Us All Along
  
• Matt Taibbi: Twenty years ago, maybe even ten, I’d have found stories about the administration cutting grants to universities and detonating thousands of campus-related jobs horrifying. (welcome to the party, pal - jjs)
  America’s colleges are hoarding billions — and yet still cry poor as Trump targets federal funding

  Continue reading

  
  

  DOMESTIC AFFAIRS, THE COURTS, WASTE/FRAUD/ABUSE

• And a third of voters blame “corruption and misuse of funds” as the main reason for the waste.
  Public Thinks That 25% Or More Of All Federal Spending Is Wasted: I&I/TIPP Poll
  
• Andrew McClenahan is, among other things, intergovernmental committee co-chair for an organization called the United Council on Welfare Fraud, and has investigated fraud in the food stamp program, including one bust several years ago that stopped a $100 million fraud scheme in South Florida. The group is made up of welfare fraud investigators from every state.
  The Drill Down: DOGE Going After Welfare Fraud — ‘The Money’s There’

• Blatantly ignore the court. Send out another flight of gang members, and tell the judge to try and stop it. The country will side with Trump, and we’ll start to break the chains of judicial tyranny. 
  Yes, Trump Should Ignore Rogue Judges
  
• Properly understood, the president’s executive powers are sufficiently broad that President Donald “St. George” Trump can slay the Deep State.
  Trump’s Broad Constitutional Powers
  
• The same lawfare that haunted Trump’s first term and dogged his four years in the wilderness is back with a vengeance.  After the Russia hoax and two impeachments, Trump’s enemies used the courts to try to bankrupt him, throw him in prison and take him off the ballot. When all else failed, they tried to assassinate him. But the lawfare only made him stronger as the American people woke up to the ruse. Now his mug shot has pride of place in a framed New York Post cover in a corridor off the Oval Office.  Haven’t Democrats learned their lesson? 
  Miranda Devine: Trump is fighting a cartel of vile, corrupt and far-left judges trying to kill his campaign promises

• “You’re wrong, Hugh,” Constitutional Scholar Levin counseled fellow conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt Wednesday after Hewitt defended Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts issuance of a public statement condemning the use of impeachment to oust radical, activist lower-court judges.
  (Old Yeller) Levin: Chief Justice Roberts’ Job Is to Defend the Constitution, Not to Protect Rogue Judges
  
• Roberts’ attempts to preserve what he views as the judiciary’s ‘legitimacy’ are only destroying its credibility with the American people.
  If Anyone’s Destroying The Judiciary’s ‘Legitimacy,’ It’s Chief Justice John Roberts
  
• U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang of Maryland, who ruled Tuesday that cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) were likely unconstitutional, is a long-time Democratic Party activist with a left-wing history.
  Judge Who Blocked USAID Cuts Is Long-time Democrat Activist
  
• Employees of DOGE's latest target spent taxpayer moneys on exotic vacations, portraits, and more.
  Inside The Now-Shuttered Federal Agency Where Employees Lived ‘Like Reigning Kings’
  
• The standoff stemmed from President Donald Trump’s Feb. 19 executive order demanding the dramatic downsizing of numerous federally-funded organizations, explicitly requiring USIP to reduce its operations and personnel to the minimum levels required by law. The administration determined the institute’s leadership, under George Moose, was not complying with this directive, leading Trump to replace Moose with senior USAID official Kenneth Jackson on Friday.
  EXCLUSIVE: Inside A Taxpayer-Funded Think Tank’s Aborted Rebellion Against DOGE
  
• The left can gripe about DOGE all it wants — and you’d better believe it will — but DOGE could help the USPS in a lot of ways. The question is: is it too late?
  USPS Calls on DOGE for Help, but Is It Too Little Too Late?

  
  "BIDEN/HARRIS BORDER BLOODBATH," AMNESTY, IMMIGRATION, BORDER SECURITY

• The plan uses carefully crafted language to avoid legal landmines. (What about actual landmines?! - meh, just tax remittances at 95% - jjs)
  Pentagon Considers Buffer Zone On Border To Boost Illegal Immigration Crack Down
  
• “[F]irst of all, four presidents used the Alien Enemies Act, four,” host Sean Hannity said. “And the U.S. Supreme Court in 1948 upheld Truman’s use of this and ruled the law itself and said it was constitutional. We even have a constitutional precedent for it which raises questions about John Roberts to me.” (he purchased a Latin American catamite sex slave, or so it is alleged - jjs)
  Stephen Miller: Alien Enemies Act Is ‘Settled Law’

• The recently introduced ‘Stop CCP VISAs Act’ could inflict more damage on U.S. national security than it prevents.
  Ending All Visas For Chinese Students Could Send Them Into The Arms Of The CCP

  ISRAEL vs IRAN & GAZA/HAMAS . . . AND Democrats

• Dead in the water.
  The Arab Plan for Gaza
  * * * * *

• Daniel Greenfield: What the support for Mahmoud Khalil, Hasan Piker and Rasha Alawieh really shows.
  Democrats Go All In On Killing Jews
  
• The accused Hamas sympathizer is shrouded in mystery—and so are his supporters.
  Who Are the Shadowy Figures Defending Mahmoud Khalil?
  
• The protest underscores deep divisions over the ongoing conflict, a subject Gadot has openly addressed. Video footage shows chaos erupting after chanting and shouting escalated to physical altercations requiring police intervention. Police handcuffed and detained several protesters as Gadot’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was unveiled just beyond a dividing wall.
  Pro-'Palestine' Protests Erupt At Gal Gadot’s Walk Of Fame Ceremony
  
• People like Mahmoud Khalil aren’t heroes.
  Stop Valorizing Campus Protesters
  
• Cynthia Huang is the president of the Young Americans for Freedom chapter at Davidson College. As such, it is not surprising that she is currently in hot water with the administration. In October, Huang, who has faced death threats over her pro-life positions, distributed a pamphlet around campus titled "Five Myths About Israel Perpetrated by the Pro-Hamas Left.” Huang told the College Fix that she didn't ask anyone to read it; she just left copies in places where people could pick them up if they were so inclined. 
  Deputizing Chaos

  ASSAD REGIME COLLAPSES"

• Why are a non-Jewish Middle Eastern people so eager to become part of a Jewish state?
  The Druze and What’s to Come in Syria

  WE-ALL-SLAM-FOR-I-SLAM

• A few brave souls are speaking up, but more had better get with the program unless they want to find themselves reciting prayers to Mecca five times a day. (if they still have a tongue let alone a head on their shoulders - jjs)
  Islam is Destroying Western Culture Here And Abroad

  CIVIL WAR 2.0: J-6 FBI FALSE FLAG "RIOT" & AFTERMATH, LEFTIST PERSECUTIONS, DEMOCRAT PUTSCH, AMERICAN DISSOLUTION

• Robert Spencer: Leftists never seem to pass up a chance to demonstrate that for all their claims that Trump is a “fascist” who is bent on destroying “our democracy,” they’re the real totalitarians who are absolutely intolerant of dissent and determined to stamp it out. . . “Don’t you guys want our money?”
  Woman Wearing MAGA Hat Denied Service, Threatened With Baseball Bat at Indianapolis Jazz Club
  
• Another Donald Trump presidential term, another spate of violence going largely ignored — or even smirked at — by Democrats and their media friends. Tesla dealerships are being firebombed and shot at, while Tesla vehicles are vandalized and their owners assaulted. Trump-supporting influencers are getting “swatted,” set up for dangerous police encounters by opponents who phone in hoax distress calls. Relatives of Trump-aligned public figures — including the sister of US Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett and Elon Musk’s brother — are receiving bomb threats. This cannot go on.
  Democrats’ silence is damning as leftist violence explodes

• “The swarm of violent attacks on Tesla property is nothing short of domestic terrorism. The Department of Justice has already charged several perpetrators with that in mind, including in cases that involve charges with five-year mandatory minimum sentences,” Bondi said in a statement. 
  Attorney General Pam Bondi Calls Tesla Attacks ‘Domestic Terrorism,’ Promises ‘Severe Consequences’
  
• “I will use everything and anything at my disposal to fight this fascist dictatorship of the United States.”
  Iranian Academic Suspended by Yale for Alleged Terror Ties Vows to Fight ‘Fascist Dictatorship’ United States (ffarsicle Farsi - jjs)

  CRIME & PUNISHMENT, NON-DOSTOYEVSKY

• “These days we see all kinds of crimes, but this is a particularly different kind,” she added. “The ATMs are really being preyed upon. We call it an attack because it is an attack.” In Houston, Texas, authorities say they linked one such “jackpotting” scheme to criminals with links to Russia.
  Reports: High-Tech Migrants’ ‘Jackpotting’ Schemes Steal Fortunes from ATMs

• “The trend of violent crime, homelessness, and other threats to public safety on one of our nation’s most prominent metro systems is unacceptable. After years of soft-on-crime policies, our Department is stepping in to restore order,” Sec. Duffy wrote. “Commuters are sick and tired of feeling like they have to jeopardize their safety to get to work, go to school, or to travel around the city. We will continue to fight to ensure their federal tax dollars are going towards a crime-free commute.”
  Trump Threatens NYC with Federal Funding Cuts Over Crime Wave, Orders Audit.
  
• Johnathan Buma, who worked in counterintelligence, was taken into custody Monday just as he was about to hop on an international flight — and slapped with charges the following day alleging he printed confidential materials from the FBI and then shared the trove with associates in 2023, authorities said.
  FBI agent critical of the bureau since Trump’s first term arrested at JFK Airport and charged with disclosing classified info

  FIRST AMENDMENT ISSUES, CENSORSHIP, FAKE NEWS, MEDIA, BIG BROTHER TECH

• As we move into riot season, there's little indication that any of this will stop.
  Far-leftist terrorists target Tesla as legacy media runs cover for them
  
• Activist journalism at its weakest.
  Rolling Stone Warns DOGE Staffer’s Family ‘Has Ties’ to Russian Oligarch
  
• CNN Senior Political Analyst Nia-Malika Henderson questioned on Wednesday whether anyone would care about Democrats winning the House of Representatives in 2026, saying President Donald Trump would have already “dismantled” multiple federal agencies by then. (Her tears are like the nectar of the gods and make my neeples explode with delight! - jjs)
  CNN Panelist So Demoralized By Trump She Doesn’t Even Care If Dems Win House In 2026

  RED-GREENS, CLIMATE CHANGE HOAX, DEMOCRAT-LEFT WAR ON FOSSIL FUELS, JUNK SCIENCE, LYSENKOISM

• Federal D.C. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan ruled that the EPA could not currently revoke money that the agency parked in accounts at Citibank in the final days of the Biden junta. The judge wrote that the Trump EPA “gave no legal justification for the termination” of the agreements with the recipients while the administration “vaguely” outlined its initial concerns with the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF).
  Obama-Appointed Judge Blocks Trump Admin From Terminating EPA ‘Gold Bars’ Grants
  
• Boyle noted that most people are familiar with the phrase “drill baby drill” but said there are three other “babies” that are not discussed as much, asking Burgum to walk through how these concepts go to together.
  Doug Burgum on the ‘Four Babies’: Drill Baby Drill, Map Baby Map, Mine Baby Mine, and Build Baby Build
  
• Despite a tenacious narrative, history shows the Green New Deal vision is not inevitable—it’s impossible.
  We’ll Never Have an Energy Transition
  
• Solar energy survives due to a web of ignorance, financial opportunism, and promotion by interested parties.
  Every Dollar Spent on Solar Energy is Wasted
  
• There will doubtlessly be an appeal — Greenpeace's Senior Legal Adviser, Deepa Padmanabha, said, “We know that this fight is not over.” But at any rate, this is a great day for Americans and people everywhere who are sick to death of environmentalists, BLM, and other disruptive, violent, and destructive Marxist mobs upending their lives under the guise of the right to protest. 
  Greenpeace Loses Dakota Access Pipeline Trial, Faces Bankruptcy and Extinction

  EDUCATION, AND WHAT PASSES FOR IT

• Tennessee, like many states, has proven that when parents and communities lead, students succeed.
  Education Belongs In The States, Not Washington
  
• End the government monopoly on K-12 and force schools to compete for students by funding students, not schools or school districts.
  How Competition can Save Education
  
• Government intrusion in education must be reined in.
  Micromanaging Microschools

  THE 2020 AND 2022ELECTION HEISTS & AFTERMATH AND 2024 SHENANIGANS

• Often referred to as “rigged-choice voting” by its critics, RCV is a system in which voters rank candidates in order of preference. If no candidate receives more than 50 percent of first-choice votes in the first round of voting, the last-place finisher is eliminated, and his votes are reallocated to the voter’s second-choice candidate. This process continues until one candidate receives a majority of votes.
  West Virginia, Wyoming Secure Elections With Ranked-Choice Voting Prohibitions

  DEMOCRAT/LEFTIST AND RINO SCANDALS, MESHUGAS, CHUTZPOCRISY

• Following the release of the files on President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, a letter allegedly signed by John F. Kennedy Jr. calling former President Joe Biden a “traitor” has been highlighted. The letter is referenced in a released Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) document from September 1994.
  Letter to Biden Signed by ‘John F. Kennedy Jr.’ Branded Him a ‘Traitor.’
  
• Rep. Jasmine Crockett billed taxpayers $11,996 in 2024 for a fresh set of wheels
  Democrats in Congress Drive Luxury Cars on Taxpayer Dime

  POLITICS

• Schumer had to postpone his book tour because so many Democrats are ticked off at him over green-lighting the continuing resolution.
  Democrats Flail, Schumer Fails
  
• For months, Democrats have been struggling to coalesce behind a political strategy as they confront President Donald Trump and the Republican majorities in the House and the Senate. Behind closed doors at party retreats, think tank meetings and strategy sessions, Democrats have been having tense and searching conversations about ideology, policy and messaging as they urgently try to address what went wrong in last year’s election.
  Democrats clashed over their shutdown strategy. But the party’s identity crisis runs far deeper
  
• Walz also thinks his masculinity scares Republicans.
  Tim Pasty Pederast Doughboy Walz Thinks He Could Kick the Butts of Most Republicans
  
• If nothing changes, Democrat strongholds set to lose a whopping number of electoral votes.
  312 is 323 the next time around?
  
• Allen West: The judgment of the American people is coming.
  What Do Democrats Stand For?

  
  THE UKRAINIAN "FRONT"

• ". . .so we can stop the bloodshed that’s taking place over there.”
  Exclusive — Trump on Ukraine War, Calls with Zelensky, Putin: ‘Two Very Good Conversations,’ ‘I Do Believe a Deal Will Be Worked Out’
  
• Americans see through the media pro-war narrative.
  Zelensky’s Popularity Plunges

  FOREIGN AFFAIRS, INTERNATIONAL

• The totalitarian communist government of North Korea condemned President Donald Trump on Tuesday for ordering airstrikes on the Yemeni Houthi terrorist organization, intended as a response to an extended campaign to disrupt global shipping in and around the Red Sea. (Time to retake the USS Pueblo and nuke Pyongyang - jjs)
  North Korea Defends Houthis from American ‘Hooliganism’ in Red Sea
  
• Trump directed all hiring for Foreign Service positions be grounded in merit.
  Trump Ends Biden’s DEI-Focused Foreign Service Hiring And Promotion Practices
  
• Trump seeks to end the Ukraine war through diplomacy and curb China’s influence, prioritizing U.S. strength, cultural sovereignty, and strategic leadership over conflicts and foreign control.
  Trump’s Foreign Policy Legacy: Ending the War in Ukraine and Countering China’s Influence

• Libertarian John Ruddick said that parliamentary members had just received a briefing from the United States Study Centre (USSC) and it had been “endlessly anti-Trump.” “It felt like I was stuck in a room and forced to watch MSNBC,” Ruddick posted on X. “The presenter concluded by apologising to Australians on behalf of Americans because of the Trump Administration.”
  Aussie Pols Tell Musk US-Funded Lefty Think Tank at University of Sydney Needs to Be ‘DOGE’d’
  
• There are multiple rebel groups, many of which are linked to terrorist groups, operating in the eastern part of the country.
  Congo’s President Offers U.S. Lucrative Deal For Mineral Rights

  DEFENSE, MILITARY, SECURITY AFFAIRS

• Judge Ana Reyes argued, “The law does not demand that the Court rubber-stamp illogical judgments based on conjecture.”
  Judge Blocks Trump’s Ban On Transgenders In Military

  HEALTH AND HEALTH CARE

• A class action lawsuit has been filed in Florida, accusing manufacturers and smoke shops of exploiting a legal loophole that allows them to sell nitrous oxide canisters if they are marketed as a culinary tool rather than an inhalant. (GALAXY gas from Uranus or Mayor Pete's - jjs)
  FDA Issues Warning About Galaxy Gas and Other ‘Laughing Gas’ Products

  ACTUAL SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY

• The idea is to create better on-board power systems so that interplanetary missions will be less reliant on solar power.
  Exlabs and Antares form partnership to develop spacecraft using nuclear power for operations
  
• Exolaunch will act to help Andoya integrate satellites on future launches.
  Andoya spaceport signs partnership deal with satellite packager Exolaunch

  FEMINAZISM, TRANSGENDER PSYCHOSIS, HOMOSEXUALIZATION, WAR ON MASCULINITY/NORMALCY

• “There are 82,000 Americans registered as POWs and MIAs, but there’s 20 million minimum LGBTQ members,” the activist said.  (The former are/were patriotic, decent wonderful souls, the latter are deluded deviants, or worse. The unmitigated evil gall to dare compare them - jjs)
  Washington state mayor destroys LGBTQ+ activist who complained about city hall flying POW/MIA flag: ‘How dare you’

• The pause is pending an investigation into UPenn’s alleged Title IX violations, which could threaten the school’s entire federal funding package.
  Trump Pauses $175 Million in Federal Funding to UPenn Over Inclusion of Trans Athletes
  
• San Francisco Pride, a nonprofit that host’s the city’s annual pride event, has recently been scrambling for other methods to raise $300,000 for this year’s festivities, according to SFGATE. Notably, the news comes amid President Donald Trump’s ongoing efforts to crack down on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts nationwide.
  San Francisco Gay Pride Festival Scrambling For Funds After Corporate Sponsors Jump Ship
  
• Two out of three Americans (66 percent) support banning men from invading women’s sports, or as Pew twists it, requiring “trans athletes to compete on teams that match their sex assigned at birth.” That marks an 8% jump from their previous study in 2022. Similarly, 56 percent of those surveyed don’t want agenda-fixated doctors mutilating children, what Pew calls “medical care” related to “gender transitions for minors.” In 2022 only 46 percent of Americans wanted to protect children from that barbaric experiment. 
  Americans Fed Up With Transgenderism, Poll Shows
  
• More than three dozen hospitals that offer sex changes to minors and also receive federal funding told the Daily Caller that they are still providing services including puberty blockers, hormone replacement therapy, or surgeries to people under the age of 18. (time for mass arrests and the stripping of medical licenses - jjs)
  EXCLUSIVE: Children’s Hospitals Continue Offering Sex Changes After Trump Moved To Defund Procedures

  CULTURE WARS, NATIONAL SUICIDE

• Christian Toto: 'Alto Knights' expected to be star's latest dud despite dual performances
  Anti-Trump De Niro: Box Office Poison
  
• Go choke on two scoops of Rachel Corrie Crunch - jjs
  Ben & Jerry’s Alleges Parent Company Unilever Removed Its CEO for Political Activism
  
• "They kept calling to ask if I was legit."
  Rachel Zegler Complains ‘White Executives’ Asked Her To ‘Prove’ Her Ethnicity For ‘West Side Story’ (paper bag test on her labia? - jjs)

ALSO: The Morning Report is cross-posted at CutJibNewsletter.com if you want to continue the conversation all day.

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