China’s Military Purges Were Larger Than We Thought The Cipher Brief
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The Islamic Republic of Iran managed to launch a major attack on Qatar’s oil fields that will take years to repair. It is promising to step up its attack on the oil infrastructures of its neighbors. Israel has responded by striking some of their oil fields, a move President Trump appears to disapprove of. As leaders are appointed, they are killed, with two top leaders killed this week alone. The new Supreme Leader is reported to be effectively non-functioning.
While Iranian street soldiers continue to kill and intimidate citizens, they themselves are coming under increasing drone attacks. The pressure to finish the war mounts as the continued shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz is leading to spikes in oil prices and other knock down effects. A coalition of 6 nations has committed to join America’s efforts to open and police the Strait of Hormuz. The nations include Japan, the United Kingdom, and France.
The most alarming news may be the return of the aircraft Gerald R Ford to Greece after a laundry fire broke out that took 30 hours to put out and destroyed 600 bunks. This means the Iran operation is now only supported by one U.S. aircraft carrier. The extent of the damage has not been reported by the Pentagon. The length of its repair was not given, nor was it made clear if the carrier’s escort ships will remain in theater.
Allies Flip, Issue Statement on Strait of Hormuz – RedState
President Donald Trump let allies have it when some rejected sending ships to help with a coalition effort to ensure the safety of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. His last take showed how exasperated he was with our “allies” who weren’t stepping up when he said that maybe the U.S. should just step back and not protect the Strait for others.
That called the allies’ bluff. You then had NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte announce that yes, the allies were talking about how they could contribute. What a little pressure from Trump can get. It isn’t just about the Strait itself; it’s about sending a message to Iran and indicating that they are on the wrong side of countries condemning their actions.
Attempts to kill the SAVE Act, a bill that would make it mandatory for voters to show photo ID to vote and end request-only mail-in voting (what we refer to as mass mailer voting), have failed in the Senate, with a 51-49 vote keeping the bill alive. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) appears ready to simply offer the bill for an up-or-down vote, without forcing the Senate to vote on changing the filibuster rule to require a verbal, rather than a procedural action.
Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) is proposing the Republicans pass the measure as a budget resolution bill, making a simply majority vote in the Senate sufficient to pass the bill. Efforts by the Democrat press to demonize the bill have failed to move the needle of support, with 80% of the country as a whole supporting requiring photo ID for voting. A new tactic is to claim the bill is an unfunded mandate, placing a price tag on election integrity.
The GOP Texas Senate candidates have reached the point of no return in their race, meaning the offer made by AG Paxton to withdraw from the race if Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) does everything he can to assure the SAVE Act passes. This deadline means that door is shut for both Cornyn and for the SAVE Act supporters.
US Sen. Cornyn, AG Paxton stay in Texas Senate race as deadline to drop out passes – KVUE
from news.google.com
The deadline for Republican candidates to remove their names from the primary runoff ballot in the intense Texas Senate race has come and gone.
Neither incumbent Sen. John Cornyn nor Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton dropped out by Tuesday’s 5 p.m. deadline. It was the last chance for either of the two men to take their name off the ballot and avoid what is sure to be an extensive, ugly and bruising few months leading up to the runoff in May, since neither candidate cleared the 50% threshold.
“At this point, both of those candidates are on the ballot no matter what, and there’s really no incentive for either of them to drop out at this point unless the situation facing them really changes in a fundamental way,” Joshua Blank, the research director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin, said.
Mostly Biden-appointed Judges have shut down numerous major Trump policies, including freezing federal funding, shutting down Voice of America, halting DEI investigations of progressive schools, stopping ICE detention facilities from opening, and more. In the wake of a slate of questionable rulings, SCOTUS Chief Judge John Roberts has encouraged what we consider insurrectionist rulings (with some exceptions) by Progmerican activist judges while shaming any critique of these many grossly egregious rulings.
Judge reinstates 1,000 Voice of America employees, deems wind-down illegal – The Washington Post
- Judge reinstates 1,000 Voice of America employees, deems wind-down illegal The Washington Post
- Judge Orders Voice of America to Restart All News Operations The New York Times
- Judge orders Trump administration to restore Voice of America and bring back hundreds of staff CBS News
- Judge orders Voice of America to reinstate 1,000 employees cut under Kari Lake NBC News
- Judge orders 1,000 Voice of America staffers back to work in rebuke to Kari Lake NPR
Russia is sending oil tankers to Cuba to rescue it from its crippling energy crisis that has left the island in a blackout condition. As dissent grows from within, the Trump administration hints it could take Cuba whenever it wants to. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel responded that any act of aggression “will clash with an impregnable resistance.”
U.S. aggression will meet ‘impregnable resistance,’ Cuba’s president says – globalnews.ca
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel has lashed out after U.S. President Donald Trump said that he can do “whatever he wants” with Cuba and that Washington could take “imminent action” against it.
Díaz-Canel said on X late Tuesday that the Trump administration “publicly threatens” Cuba’s government almost daily with overthrowing it, and any act of aggression “will clash with an impregnable resistance.”
The comments came after the new threats by Trump and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said that the Cuban government’s socialist economic model needs to “change dramatically.”
The Democrat Party is continuing to refuse to support any DHS funding bill until ICE is “reformed” to the point of being feckless at removing illegal aliens. Lines grow in airports, and TSA agents are starting to call in sick, not wanting to work without pay (even though they will receive their pay when the shutdown ends). National security concerns are only heightened in lieu of a slew of recent Islamist attacks on American soil. The DNC media continues to protect the Democrat Party from being blamed for the shutdown, choosing instead to blame Republicans.
While the Senate works to push through a new DHS head, Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), the White House is claiming it has attempted to negotiate with the Democrats but has received no response. They released a letter to the Democrats, offering concessions on five points, expanding body-camera usage, limiting civil immigration enforcement activities at “sensitive areas,” improving DHS detention facility oversight, enforcing visible officer identification, and NOT deporting U.S. citizens.
The letter claims, “The Administration has worked in good faith to again reach bipartisan agreement on full funding for the entire Department of Homeland Security and institute common–sense operational improvements to federal immigration enforcement operations that enhance the safety of American communities. Democrats must stop holding the safety and security of the American people hostage and move forward with fully funding DHS.”
White House Offers Concessions On DHS Funding To End Shutdown – Daily Caller
The White House outlined five reforms they’re willing to grant Democrats, including expanding body–worn cameras by DHS law enforcement, limiting civil immigration enforcement activities at some sensitive locations, increasing oversight of DHS detention facilities, enforcing visible officer identification and not deporting U.S. citizens.
“The Administration has worked in good faith to again reach bipartisan agreement on full funding for the entire Department of Homeland Security and institute common–sense operational improvements to federal immigration enforcement operations that enhance the safety of American communities,” the letter reads.
“Democrats must stop holding the safety and security of the American people hostage and move forward with fully funding DHS,” the letter adds.
According to an investigation by Defending Education, a teachers’ union called “Minneapolis Families for Public Schools (MFPS)” has been coordinating an initiative to effectively help teachers organize resistance to ICE arrests of illegal aliens.
The “initiate” is called “TakeAction Minnesota.” On the website, they claim “We will teach and demonstrate resistance tactics that can be replicated elsewhere, leaving no community undefended. We hope to force an end to ICE’s unprecedented siege of Minnesota — and further the movement to abolish ICE altogether while we do it,”
Rhyen Staley, research director at Defending Education, stated “The teachers unions continue to prove they are rotten apples that only care about far-left street activism, to the detriment of educating children. Teachers and community groups should be dedicating time to improving learning outcomes for students, not creating strategies and lists of people to attempt to thwart law enforcement.”
How MN Teachers Union Funds ‘Front Group’ Trying To Abolish ICE – thefederalist.com
Anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agitators in Minnesota operate as a “front group” for a state teachers union in the leftist campaign against immigration law, according to activist documents and federal records brought to light by Defending Education.
Minneapolis Families for Public Schools (MFPS), reportedly an “initiative” of TakeAction Minnesota (TAM), helps organize “Rapid Response Networks & ICE Watch” centered around neighborhoods and schools, the documents show, while TAM has partnered with other radical-left groups in events that involve student walk-outs and backed other leftist activism at schools.
“The teachers unions continue to prove they are rotten apples that only care about far-left street activism, to the detriment of educating children,” Rhyen Staley, research director at Defending Education, told The Federalist. “Teachers and community groups should be dedicating time to improving learning outcomes for students, not creating strategies and lists of people to attempt to thwart law enforcement.”
Joseph Foreman, who goes by the name Afroman, was sued by the Adams County, Ohio Sheriff’s Office for defamation. Foreman had published a video of the police raiding his home in search of drugs, a raid that proved fruitless.
The police sued the singer of “Because I got High” over defamation. A jury of Afroman’s peers found the singer not liable, delivering to the police department a stinging rebuke of their attempt to stifle the First Amendment rights of Americans.
Afroman found not liable in bizarre Ohio defamation case – nypost.com
The verdict was the icing on the cake.
Afroman did not defame Ohio cops in a satirical music video that featured footage of them fruitlessly raiding the rapper’s house, a jury found on Wednesday.
The 51-year-old “Because I Got High” rapper, whose real name is Joseph Foreman, held up his hands in triumph and hugged people in the courtroom after he was found not liable for defamation, or invasion of privacy false light publicity.
Foreman was sued by the Adams County Sheriff’s Office over a drug search at his home in August 2022 that resulted in no criminal charges.
The hip hop star wrote the satirical song “Lemon Pound Cake” and made a music video with real footage of the raid taken from his home surveillance cameras to raise money for property damage caused during the search, he has said.
Moody Bible Institute has settled with the Chicago Public School District after suing them for barring students from participating in Moody’s student-teaching program. The settlement ends the school district’s requirement that Moody must hire employees, even if they are not Christian, in order for students in their program to be able to be teachers in their schools.
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) Senior Counsel Jeremiah Galus stated in a press release, “Chicago desperately needs more teachers to fill hundreds of vacancies, and Moody’s students will be well-equipped and qualified to help meet that need.
“Moody holds its faculty and students to high standards of excellence, and we’re pleased to reach this favorable outcome that will allow it to participate in Chicago Public Schools’ student-teaching program. We’re hopeful other public officials will take note that they can’t inject themselves illegally and unconstitutionally into a religious non-profit’s hiring practices.”
Chicago Public Schools to Allow Bible College Students Into Teaching Program, Following Lawsuit – legalinsurrection.com
It’s amazing that it took a lawsuit to make this happen.
FOX News reports:
Chicago Public Schools will now allow Bible college students into its teaching program, after lawsuit
Chicago Public Schools (CPS) will no longer bar students from a Bible college from participating in its student-teaching program after reaching a settlement Thursday in the college’s religious discrimination case.
Moody Bible Institute, a private Christian college in Chicago, sued the Chicago Board of Education in November, alleging CPS had unlawfully blocked its students from participating in the district’s student-teaching program because of the school’s religious hiring practices.
The lawsuit claims CPS excluded Moody students from its student teacher internship program after the college refused to abandon its policy of hiring employees who affirm the school’s statement of faith and agree to live according to its Christian beliefs, including on gender and sexuality.
“As a condition of participation, Chicago Public Schools insists that Moody sign agreements with employment nondiscrimination provisions that forbid Moody from employing only those who share and live out its faith,” the complaint stated. “Such a requirement is unlawful.”
