Monday, April 21, 2025

April 21, 2025

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Welcome to the news for independent thinkers

Leading the News . . .

Pope Francis Dies at 88 . . . Pope Francis passed away in the early hours of Easter Monday. The pope had met with Vice President JD Vance the day before. The pope had been admitted to the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic Hospital on Friday, Feb. 14, after suffering bronchitis for several days. The doctors diagnosed him with bilateral pneumonia on Feb. 18. Francis had returned to his Vatican residence after 38 days in the hospital before passing Monday. President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social Monday morning, "Rest in Peace Pope Francis! May God Bless him and all who loved him!" Daily Signal

Francis altered some church doctines, upheld others, but angered many conservatives . . . Pope Francis changed the Catholic Church's teaching in areas such as the death penalty and nuclear weapons, upheld it in others such as abortion, and made inroads with Muslims. Francis echoed his predecessors in saying that human life is sacred and must be defended. He described abortion, as well as euthanasia, as evidence of today's "throwaway culture" and likened abortion to "hiring a hit man to resolve a problem." Some conservative U.S. commentators accused Francis of having Marxist sympathies, given his frequent denunciations of economic systems that "idolize" money over people. Associated Press

JD Vance posts emotional tribute to Pope Francis hours after they met: 'May God rest his soul'

Politics

Trump Blends Easter Greetings With Barbs For 'Radical Left Lunatics,' Judges, And 'Sleepy Joe Biden' . . . "Happy Easter to all, including the Radical Left Lunatics who are fighting and scheming so hard to bring Murderers, Drug Lords, Dangerous Prisoners, the Mentally Insane, and well known MS-13 Gang Members and Wife Beaters, back into our Country," Trump said. "Happy Easter also to the WEAK and INEFFECTIVE Judges and Law Enforcement Officials who are allowing this sinister attack on our Nation to continue, an attack so violent that it will never be forgotten! Sleepy Joe Biden purposefully allowed Millions of CRIMINALS to enter our Country, totally unvetted and unchecked, through an Open Borders Policy that will go down in history as the single most calamitous act ever perpetrated upon America," Trump continued. Daily Wire

More Democrats head to El Salvador . . . Four more Democratic lawmakers have landed in El Salvador as the party ramps up its efforts to secure the release of a Maryland man the Trump administration now admits it erred in deporting. Democratic Reps. Robert Garcia of California, Maxwell Frost of Florida, Yassamin Ansari of Arizona and Maxine Dexter of Oregon are demanding the White House abide by a court order to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the United States. They're planning to meet with officials at the U.S. embassy in El Salvador. Politico

The 7 Most Shameless Attention-Seekers in Congress

Culture

'F— Israel, F— Zionism': Uproar at Cornell Over Featured Spring Concert Singer Kehlani . . . Pro-Israel students at Cornell University are up in arms over an upcoming spring concert funded by hundreds of thousands of dollars in mandatory student fees featuring the singer Kehlani, who has endorsed "intifada" and said bluntly, "It's f— Israel, it's f— Zionism." Kehlani is slated to headline Cornell's Slope Day, scheduled for May 7, an annual concert that marks the end of the school year. Washington Free Beacon

At Harvard's Center for Health and Human Rights, Academics Paint Israeli Jews as the Real Terrorists . . . In late March, Harvard University, anticipating a funding fight with the Trump administration, suspended its School of Public Health's longstanding research partnership with Birzeit University, a West Bank institution known for hosting Hamas military parades. But a half-dozen faculty members and affiliates who have defended Hamas's Oct. 7 attack and accused Israel of "genocide" and "terrorism" remain at the school. Washington Free Beacon

Trump Administration Irate at Harvard, Plans to Pull Additional $1 Billion in Funding . . . The Trump administration has grown so furious with Harvard University after a week of an escalating dispute between the two sides that it is planning to pull an additional $1 billion of the school's funding for health research, according to people familiar with the matter. Trump administration officials, the people said, thought the long list of demands they sent Harvard last Friday was a confidential starting point for negotiations. They were surprised on Monday when Harvard released the letter to the public. Wall Street Journal

Catholic businesses may not be forced to subsidize abortions, ruled a federal Judge . . . Traynor granted 9,000 Catholic businesses a permanent injunction against an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission rule requiring employers to provide abortion-related leave and other practices contrary to these businesses' religious beliefs. In 2023, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission under President Joe Biden issued new regulations effectively rewriting the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act to include abortion. The Washington Stand

National Security

Hegseth Said to Have Shared Attack Details in Second Signal Chat . . . Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared detailed information about forthcoming strikes in Yemen on March 15 in a private Signal group chat that included his wife, brother and personal lawyer, according to four people with knowledge of the chat. Some of those people said that the information Mr. Hegseth shared on the Signal chat included the flight schedules for the F/A-18 Hornets targeting the Houthis in Yemen — essentially the same attack plans that he shared on a separate Signal chat the same day that mistakenly included the editor of The Atlantic. New York Times

White House backs Hegseth, Leavitt says 'entire Pentagon' is resisting him . . . President Donald Trump "stands strongly behind Pete Hegseth," press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday morning, telling Fox News that the mounting criticism of the scandal-plagued Defense secretary is "what happens when the entire Pentagon is working against you." Hegseth "is doing phenomenal leading the Pentagon," Leavitt said during a Monday "Fox & Friends" appearance. "This is what happens when the entire Pentagon is working against you and working against the monumental change you are trying to implement." Politico

Whether Hegseth did anything terrible or not, he may not be long for the Pentagon. Trump hates a mess.

Supreme Court makes 'unprecedented' intervention to block Trump's gang deportations . . . The Supreme Court waded even more deeply into President Trump's immigration powers this weekend by ordering an emergency halt of deportations to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act as the justices signaled a striking willingness to referee administration actions. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., who dissented, called his colleagues' intervention "unprecedented." He said they broke their rules governing when to hear a case so they could issue an emergency blockade against Mr. Trump. Washington Times

International

China warns countries against striking trade deals with US at its expense . . . Beijing said will firmly oppose any party striking a deal at China's expense and "will take countermeasures in a resolute and reciprocal manner," its Commerce Ministry said. The ministry was responding to a report that the Trump administration is preparing to pressure nations seeking tariff reductions or exemptions from the U.S. to curb trade with China, including imposing monetary sanctions. President Donald Trump paused the sweeping tariffs he announced on dozens of countries on April 2 except those on China Reuters

You should also know

Nearly 400 Colleges and Universities Refuse to Close DEI Offices . . . Defending Education, the higher education arm of Parents Defending Education, published a report this week detailing how nearly 400 colleges and universities in the U.S. still operate DEI offices and programs. Only 16 colleges and universities have shuttered their DEI initiatives. According to the report, 242 universities still operate DEI offices or programs, as do 162 schools or colleges. Defending Education also found that 26 universities or colleges have simply "rebranded" or "renamed" their DEI offices and programs. The Washington Stand

Guilty Pleasures

Tim Walz's Daughter Says Trump Would Have Deported Jesus And Claimed He Was Part Of MS-13 . . . "If Jesus were alive today and in the United States, this administration would already have taken him and removed him from this country without due process, claimed he was a member of the MS-13 gang as a way to try to justify not giving him due process, as if there is any justifiable reason to not giving somebody due process," Hope Walz declared.

"Some people don't want to talk about that," she continued. "It truly is baffling how clear and laid out everything is and there is [sic] still people standing by it. Daily Wire

Are we now stuck with the Walz family for the foreseeable future? Thanks Kamala.

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