Tuesday, April 1, 2025

April 1, 2025

Good morning,

Welcome to the news for independent thinkers

Leading the News . . .

Special elections stand as early gauge of Trump support, strength of resistance . . . Florida's congressional contests will fill the seats of national security advisor Mike Waltz and Trump's first pick for attorney general, Matt Gaetz. Their districts are solidly Republican, though their would-be replacements are facing tougher-than-expected contests. In Wisconsin, meanwhile, the state Supreme Court race will decide the majority on the bench and likely have implications for the congressional maps, election integrity, abortion and a host of other issues. Just the News

Republicans currently maintain a 218-213 majority in the House. The prospect of two possible upsets in Florida and court intervention in Wisconsin's districts could render Republican control of the House all the more precarious.

Politics

Pro-Trump journalist sounds alarm on 'biggest threat' to MAGA movement . . . Writer and journalist Batya Ungar-Sargon believes Democrats are lost in the wilderness in part because they believe Trump won only over "trans issues," but fretted that "a lot of people on the right are making the same mistake." "Of course, that was a part of it. But what Trump won on was the idea that we don't have to live like this, that working class people deserve dignity," she said. "And that dignity for a lot of working class people comes from economic autonomy, but also cultural and social autonomy. And I think that if the Republicans go back to the pre-Trump version of the party, they're gonna lose all of that support that they built." Fox News

She is defining the populism that has allowed Republicans to broaden their reach to the working class and other groups.

Jayapal: We're Training Americans to Take Down Potential Trump Dictatorship . . . Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) said Monday on MSNBC's "The Rachel Maddow Show" that she was training Americans to help take down a potential "dictatorship" of President Donald Trump. At her resistance lab training, Jayapal said, "It appears that the Trump administration is willing to ignore judicial decisions and so that brings us to you in this room. It brings us to the people that is really, the bulwark, the wall against the crumbling of democracy." Breitbart

Group Equips Parents to Lobby Lawmakers to Follow Trump's Edict on Girls Sports . . . A conservative organization for parents is equipping them to challenge their elected representatives who are defying President Donald Trump's executive order protecting women's sports. The American Parents Coalition will send parents a form they can send to their legislators urging them to adhere to Trump's directive keeping biological males out of women's sports, The Daily Signal has learned. Daily Signal

Biden Allies Reportedly Prepped For His Death As Early As 2023 . . . Behind the scenes, Biden's allies started to plan for the event that another candidate would need to take his place in the presidential race, whether it be because he would drop out or pass away, Parnes and Allen write in an excerpt of their book, which was shared with the Hill. An aide to former Vice President Kamala Harris reportedly carried around a list of Republican federal judges that Trump hadn't appointed in the event she needed to be unexpectedly sworn in, Parnes and Allen wrote. The idea was that being sworn in by one of the judges on the list would be seen as more "credible to Republicans," the excerpt says. Daily Caller

Tesla Owners Not Connected to DOGE or Musk Are Acceptable Victims, According to 31% of Democrats . . . A surprising number of Americans approve of the rash of violence against Teslas amid Elon Musk's work helping President Donald Trump with the Department of Government Efficiency. Self-identified atheists, Democrats, young people, and supporters of the policies of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., are the most likely to approve of the violence and the least likely to consider it "domestic terrorism." Daily Signal

GOP-led states remove hundreds of thousands from voter rolls, finding non-citizens had registered . . . Collectively, the GOP-led states of Idaho and Missouri took nearly 300,000 registrations off their voter rolls after finding inactive, ineligible, or deceased voters, in addition to duplicates and voters who moved. Iowa identified nearly 300 non-citizens on the state's voter rolls and referred them to the Iowa attorney general. Just the News

Anna Paulina Luna resigns from House Freedom Caucus, says 'mutual respect' was 'shattered . . . Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., is resigning from the House Freedom Caucus, she announced in a letter to fellow conservatives on Monday. It's the latest escalation in her fight against House GOP leaders and a small group of members on the right flank of their conference over the issue of proxy voting. Luna has teamed up with Democrats and several other Republicans on a mechanism aimed at forcing consideration of legislation that allows new parents in the House to vote remotely for 12 weeks around their baby's birth. Fox News

Congressional Republicans Seek to Slap Down Activist Judges, Curtail Universal Injunctions . . . Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote in The Wall Street Journal Monday that he has proposed legislation to deeply curtail the use of national injunctions. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., another member of the Judiciary Committee, has also proposed a bill to stop nationwide injunctions and has called on Republican leadership to take up the issue. It's not just the Senate. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., has advanced legislation in the House mirroring the Senate proposals. The Daily Signal

'MAHA'?: New Jersey Democrat Introduces 'Caffeine Safety' Labeling Bill . . . ep. Rob Menendez Jr. introduced the Sarah Katz Caffeine Safety Act at a press conference Monday, a bill that would require labels showing caffeine levels on beverages. Joined by the parents of children who have died from cardiac episodes after consuming highly caffeinated drinks, Menendez, D-N.J., said his bill fits with the "Make America Healthy Again" agenda of President Donald Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Daily Signal

There will come a point soon when we will have to distinguish between legitimate concerns about what Americans take into their bodies and whether they are being subjected to old-fashioned nanny state directives.

Amber Ruffin issues vile slur after being axed from White House gig for calling Team Trump 'murderers' . . . Amber Ruffin doubled down on her criticism of the Trump administration, comparing them to 'the Nazis' in The Sound of Music after she was fired from the annual White House Correspondents Association dinner. Ruffin was set to perform at the famed event next month but the association's board have unanimously voted to remove her after she said the Trump White House was full of 'murderers.' Daily Mail

The WHCA knew exactly who they were getting and only backed down after Trump started treating the organization the way it deserves.

Democrat Senator Thinks 'Average Middle American' Is Too Dumb To Find Greenland On Map . . . Trump is "threatening a NATO ally with military action. It's insane, it's unmoored. And we could spend all of our time huffing and puffing about how ridiculous it is, but look, your average Trump voter is laughing at us and saying 'he's owning the libs,' and your average middle American says 'why are you wasting your time worrying about Greenland, I can't even find it on a map,'" Democrat Delaware Sen. Chris Coons said on CNN. Daily Caller

Culture

Totalitarian Insanity': Preschool Child Suspended For Being 'Transphobic' . . . A toddler was suspended from nursery after being accused of being transphobic or homophobic, The Telegraph can reveal. Department for Education data show the child, aged either three or four, was suspended from a state school in the 2022-23 academic year for "abuse against sexual orientation and gender identity". The school and further details of the case were not disclosed. But statistics show that 94 pupils at state primary schools were suspended or permanently excluded for transphobia and homophobia in 2022-23. Telegraph

No, this is not an April Fool's joke.

Trump Admin To Review $9B in Harvard Grants and Contracts Over 'Anti-Semitic Discrimination' . . . The Trump administration is launching a review of Harvard University's grants and contracts, citing the school's "failure to protect students on campus from anti-Semitic discrimination" and its promotion of "divisive ideologies over free inquiry." If Harvard fails to take "meaningful actions" on those issues as early as this week, the administration will "not hesitate" to terminate funds. The move is the first step in a regulatory fight between the Trump administration and Harvard that is almost certain to escalate. Washington Free Beacon

National Security

Pete Hegseth Announces He Is Ordering Equal Standards for Men and Women in Combat Roles . . . Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will issue a memo setting equal standards for men and women in combat roles across the armed services, he announced on X Monday. The memo aims to implement the same set of standards for all service members involved in combat, regardless of sex, Hegseth said on X. Hegseth said the services would review the guidance to ensure the "highest and equal standards for men and women in combat." Daily Caller

Court Denies Trump Administration Request to Enforce Military Transgender Ban . . . A U.S. appeals court on Monday denied a request by the Trump administration to pause a lower court's decision blocking President Donald Trump's ban on transgender people serving in the military. U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle in Tacoma, Washington, last week issued a preliminary injunction putting on hold the military's new policy of identifying and discharging any transgender service members. Reuters

Obama-Appointed Judge In San Francisco Rules 350,000 Illegals Can Keep Work Permits

Illegal Migrant Released By Biden Allegedly Murders Mother Of 5 . . . Local authorities have leveled additional, gruesome charges against an illegal migrant previously released into the country by the Biden administration and accused of murdering a Georgia mother of five. David Hector Rivas-Sagastume, a Honduran national, is accused of brutally murdering a Georgia mother earlier in March. Rivas-Sagastume has since been charged with additional heinous crimes — including rape and necrophilia — and is being detained in a local jurisdiction that has rolled back cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Daily Caller

International

Le Pen Verdict Fuels Claims That Europe's Elites Are Colluding Against Populists . . . Leaders of the U.S. and Europe are increasingly at odds over a key aspect of democracy: How far should the courts go in constraining the power of elected politicians and should those decisions be allowed to undermine the will of voters? That conflict is sure to deepen after Monday's decision by a French court found nationalist Marine Le Pen guilty of embezzlement and barred her from politics for five years, making it unlikely she can take part in 2027 presidential elections, when she was expected to be the front-runner, unless she can win a swift appeal. Wall Street Journal

You should also know

A stroke survivor speaks again with the help of an experimental brain-computer implant . . . Scientists have developed a device that can translate thoughts about speech into spoken words in real time. Although it's still experimental, they hope the brain-computer interface could someday help give voice to those unable to speak. A new study described testing the device on a 47-year-old woman with quadriplegia who couldn't speak for 18 years after a stroke. Doctors implanted it in her brain during surgery as part of a clinical trial. Associated Press

New York moves toward a statewide cellphone ban in schools . . . New York is on the verge of becoming the next state to ban cellphone use during school hours — a victory for its Democratic governor who has been pushing to drastically limit the "endless disruptions from social media" on students. Gov. Kathy Hochul and lawmakers are hashing out the parameters of a full-day "bell-to-bell" restriction — one of the most sweeping issues the governor has championed during her tenure. Politico

Well, not every idea that issues from a Blue State is bad . . .