Tuesday, May 27, 2025

May 27, 2025

Good morning,

Welcome to the news for independent thinkers

Leading the News . . .

The Weight Of Memory: Why Memorial Day Matters . . . Memorial Day isn't just a holiday. It's a defiant stand against our own human tendency to let the sacrifices of the fallen fade into the noise of our fast-paced lives. We must remember, because the stories of those who gave everything for our freedom are the part of our story that makes everything possible for us in our current time. Our culture, driven by a relentless news cycle and a forward-looking obsession, often forgets. It's our own human nature to let the past slip away, to assume our freedoms and comforts are a given. But this forgetting comes at a cost. Daily Wire

All we do, all we have, is given to us by the men and women, most of them just starting adulthood, who sacrificed their futures to provide it.

Politics

'Make the Changes They Want': Trump Gives Senate Go-Ahead to Take Red Pen to 'Big, Beautiful Bill' . . . Trump's approval of Senate Republicans making "the changes they want" in the sweeping tax and spending bill comes as some GOP senators are warning that the package is dead-on-arrival without major reforms. Johnson has been urging the Senate to alter the legislation as little as possible given the "delicate" consensus House GOP leadership crafted on the president's landmark bill, which passed the House by a narrow one-vote margin Thursday. Daily Signal

Is House Republicans' Victory Lap on Big, Beautiful Bill Premature?

Trump threatens to strip Harvard of $3B in grants and give money to trade schools . . . "We are still waiting for the Foreign Student Lists from Harvard so that we can determine, after a ridiculous expenditure of BILLIONS OF DOLLARS, how many radicalized lunatics, troublemakers all, should not be let back into our Country," Trump wrote on Truth Social Monday. In a separate post, Trump added Monday, "I am considering taking Three Billion Dollars of Grant Money away from a very antisemitic Harvard, and giving it to TRADE SCHOOLS all across our land." "What a great investment that would be for the USA, and so badly needed!!!" he wrote. Fox News

DOGE: Social Security Officially Removes 12.3 Million Individuals Listed Age 120+

DOJ's Harmeet Dhillon's Civil-Rights Revolution Comes With Tea and Roses . . . In her first weeks on the job, Dhillon has redeployed the division from its traditional civil-rights priorities to one advancing a MAGA agenda. So far that has meant fighting diversity initiatives, transgender rights and "wokeness," while advocating for the rights of gun owners and religious groups. In the past week alone, the Trump administration launched an investigation into whether Chicago engaged in racial discrimination by hiring Black employees for top jobs; said it would use an antifraud law to pressure universities to end diversity and inclusion programs. Wall Street Journal

James Comey Calls GOP 'White Supremacist Adjacent'

Culture

State Department Officials Head To Europe To Fight For Free Speech . . . group of senior State Department officials will head to France and Ireland this week to push both countries to respect citizens' rights, The Daily Wire has learned. The trip is part of a State Department effort to fight "egregious examples of democratic backsliding" and "violations of basic natural rights" in Europe. The initiative, launched by the department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, is especially focused on defending freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the right to privacy. Daily Wire

Paris and Berlin join EU calls for crackdown on Hungary over pride ban . . . The majority of EU countries — including France and Germany — want the European Commission to crack down on Hungary over Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's plan to ban upcoming Pride celebrations in Budapest, according to a joint statement seen by POLITICO. The move piles pressure on the Commission to penalize Budapest, just as EU diplomats warn of increasing momentum to deploy the "nuclear option" against Hungary over its obstructionism on Ukraine. Politico

Are independent nations not permitted to make their own decisions about their culture? No one is being arrested or killed here.

National Security

Bongino announces reviews of 3 unsolved mysteries: WH cocaine, SCOTUS leak on Roe, Jan. 6 pipe bombs . . . FBI deputy director Dan Bongino, a former NYPD officer, Secret Service agent and conservative commentator, revealed on X that he and bureau Director Kash Patel had decided to "either re-open, or push additional resources and investigative attention" to the discovery of cocaine in the West Wing during the Biden administration, the leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, and the planting of pipe bombs outside the Democratic and Republican national committees hours before the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. New York Post

International

King prepares to give key speech backing Canada . . . King Charles III will deliver a significant speech in Canada's parliament later on Tuesday that is expected to offer his support in the country's dispute with US President Donald Trump. Soon after arriving, the King, who is Canada's head of state, held a meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney, recently elected on a wave of anti-Trump public opinion. It will be the first time in almost 50 years that a monarch gives the Speech from the Throne, with the King's decision to come to parliament in Ottawa seen as a symbolic show of support for Canada. BBC

Come on, Chuck, get with the program. We'll make you governor.

4 Liverpool fans seriously hurt when car plowed into a crowd. The suspect acted alone, police say . . . British police were holding a 53-year-old man on Tuesday over a collision that turned a joyous soccer celebration in Liverpool to tragedy and sent more than two dozen people to hospitals, four of them in very serious condition. Merseyside Police said they are not treating the incident as terrorism and are not looking for other suspects. The force has not identified the arrested driver. Police in Britain usually do not name suspects until they are charged. Associated Press

Moment car drives into crowd at Liverpool trophy parade

Germany's Merz says there are no more range restrictions on the weapons supplied to Ukraine . . . Germany's new chancellor said Monday that his country and other major allies are no longer imposing any range restrictions on weapons supplied to Ukraine as it fights the Russian invasion. Friedrich Merz has plunged into diplomatic efforts to try to secure a ceasefire and keep Western support for Ukraine intact since becoming Germany's leader nearly three weeks ago. On Monday, he said that "there are no longer any range restrictions for weapons that have been delivered to Ukraine — neither by the British, nor by the French, nor by us, and not by the Americans either." Associated Press

You should also know

'Duck Dynasty' Star Phil Robertson Dead At 79 . . . 'Duck Dynasty' star and Robertson family patriarch Phil Robertson died Sunday at the age of 79, his son Jase announced via Twitter."Robertson made his name inventing a innovative new duck call for hunters to use in the 1970's, leading to the success of his company Duck Commander. His family then became famous for their portrayal in the reality show Duck Dynasty, which aired in the 2010's. Daily Caller

Former US Rep. Charles Rangel of New York has died at age 94

US Olympic legend Mary Lou Retton arrested for DUI in West Virginia . . . Olympic gold medalist Mary Lou Retton was arrested earlier this month for DUI in West Virginia. The former Olympian was arrested in Marion County, W. Va., on May 17 for "driving under influence of alcohol, controlled substances, or drugs," according to records posted online by the West Virginia Magistrate Court system. Retton, 57, is facing one misdemeanor count of DUI, and she posted $1,500 bond the same day of her arrest. New York Post

We assume they asked her to do something other than walk a straight line . . .

Guilty Pleasures

Emmanuel Macron's wife seen shoving him in the face in as France's first couple arrives in Vietnam . . . French first lady Brigitte Macron was seen shoving her husband, French President Emmanuel Macron, in the face while the couple was waiting to disembark their plane in Hanoi, Vietnam. Brigitte Macron's arms – in red sleeves – could be seen reaching out and pushing Macron away, with one hand covering his mouth and part of his nose while the other was on his jaw. As the clip, recorded by The Associated Press, quickly went viral, Macron said that he and his wife were play-fighting. Fox News