Important Takeaways:
- We have a government that is literally fighting against itself.
- By the end of the Biden administration, leftist domination of most of our federal agencies was virtually complete. But now we have a new administration that most of our leftist federal workers absolutely detest. Many of them have absolutely no intention of cooperating with the new administration, and some of them have started to openly rebel against it.
- A secretive movement known as “#AltGov” has become the epicenter of that rebellion. Those that are involved primarily communicate through anonymous social media accounts and an encrypted messaging app…
- Calling itself #AltGov, the network has developed a visible, public-facing presence in recent weeks through Bluesky accounts, most of which bear the names or initials of federal agencies, aimed at getting information out to the public – and correcting disinformation – about the chaos being unleashed by the Trump administration.
- With 40 accounts to date, their collective megaphone is getting louder, as most of the accounts have tens of thousands of followers, with “Alt CDC (they/them)” being the largest, at nearly 95,000 followers.
- The network has also formed a group and a series of sub-groups on Wire, the encrypted messaging app, to share information and develop strategies – as played out on Saturday.
- “#AltGov dates from the first Trump administration, but it’s even more needed now,” said an employee at Fema, the disaster response agency, who requested anonymity to avoid being targeted at work. She recently launched an #AltGov Fema account on Bluesky. With nearly 13,000 followers, the account says it’s dedicated to “helping people before, during, and after (this democratic) disaster”.
- The network is aiming to “expose harmful policies, defend public institutions and equip citizens with tools to push back against authoritarianism,” Lynn Stahl, a contractor for the Department of Veterans Affairs and member of the group, told the Guardian.
- In other words, they want to use their positions inside the federal government to oppose the Trump administration any way that they can.
- Attorney General Pam Bondi instructed the FBI to deliver all documents related to Jeffrey Epstein to her office, and they told her that they had done so.
- But now it turns out that they had secretly held back thousands of documents, and Pam Bondi is extremely upset…
- Attorney General Pam Bondi sent a fiery letter to FBI Director Kash Patel on Thursday accusing federal investigators in New York of withholding thousands of pages of Jeffrey Epstein documents she has vowed to make public.
- Bondi said she had requested the full Epstein case file before Patel was confirmed as the head of the FBI and received about 200 pages of files — far less than the number of pages released last year in a civil lawsuit connected to Ghislaine Maxwell, the trafficker’s former lover and convicted accomplice.
- “I repeatedly questioned whether this was the full set of documents responsive to my request and was repeatedly assured by the FBI that we had received the full set of documents,” Bondi wrote. “Late yesterday, I learned from a source that the FBI Field Office in New York was in possession of thousands of pages of documents related to the investigation and indictment of Epstein.”
- FBI whistleblower Garret O’Boyle has revealed that operatives inside the FBI have been working feverishly to destroy sensitive files…
- “There are FBI servers,” said ex-agent-turned-whistleblower Garret O’Boyle, “and people inside the FBI have been working night and day to destroy files on these servers.”
- “No idea on what it is — I can only speculate — but you mentioned the Epstein list,” he added. “I’d imagine it’s cases like that.”
- If this sort of insubordination persists, more agencies may have to be almost entirely dismantled just like USAID was.
- Sadly, many workers that were fired at USAID and other federal agencies are now conducting wild protests…
- Of course this is just the beginning.
- For example, the Trump administration has announced that 120 IRS offices will be permanently shut down…
- The Trump administration is moving forward with plans to shut down more than 120 IRS offices that provide taxpayer assistance as part of a broader effort to reduce the federal government’s footprint and cut costs.
- The decision, outlined in a letter from the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) obtained by The Washington Post, comes at a crucial time—right in the middle of the federal tax filing season, which ends on April 15.
- And President Trump has instructed those running our federal agencies “to turn in a plan for ‘large-scale’ headcount reductions” by March 13th…
- The Trump administration directed federal agency heads Wednesday to turn in a plan for “large-scale” headcount reductions by March 13 — as the president told his first cabinet meeting, he wanted to purge government workers who are “scamming our country.”
- The memo, sent jointly by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Office of Personnel Management (OPM), tells agency leaders to work with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to make cuts to the “bloated, corrupt federal government” by methods including firing “underperforming employees,” closing unneeded regional offices and not renewing contracts.
- The memo comes after DOGE overseer Elon Musk threatened twice to fire government employees who didn’t respond to an email asking for five things they did in the last week.
- Well, Trump just said that a million federal workers could potentially be “on the bubble” …
- President Donald Trump warned that one million or more federal employees are now “on the bubble” because of their failure to respond to an email demanding they justify their jobs.
- In a wild monologue during a Cabinet meeting Tuesday, the president jumped in after Elon Musk responded to a question from a pool reporter about the fates of those who failed to respond to the email sent Saturday by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) — which asked federal employees to list five bullet points of items they accomplished in the last week. Despite having previously warned federal employees that failure to respond would be considered a resignation, Musk softened his position — in response to the pool reporter asking whether those million-plus employees who blew off the email demand would be terminated.
- “We’re going to send another email,” Musk said. “But our goal is not to be capricious or unfair. We want to give people every opportunity to send an email. And the email could simply be ‘What I’m working on is too sensitive or classified to describe.’ Like, literally just that would be sufficient. You know, I think this is just common sense.”
- On top of everything else that is going on, a potential government shutdown is looming in the middle of next month…
- Congress is barreling toward a deadline to avert a government shutdown in just over two weeks, with Democrats and Republicans at odds over whether there should be guardrails on President Trump’s ability to withhold funding approved by Congress.
- Democrats want to insert language in the funding bill to ensure that the administration implements the spending directed by Congress, a reaction to Mr. Trump and top adviser Elon Musk’s work to downsize large swaths of the executive branch. But Republicans have made it clear that they won’t accept those terms.
- Government funding expires on March 14, and keeping the government open past the deadline will likely require bipartisan support in both the House and Senate. Republicans control 53 seats in the Senate, but a funding measure requires 60 votes for passage. In the House, Republicans are operating with a razor-thin majority and a divided conference in which conservatives regularly vote against government spending bills.
- In my entire lifetime, we have never seen this much chaos in Washington.
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Important Takeaways:
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky started a blazing row with Vice President J.D. Vance in the Oval Office during a press conference on a pending minerals deal, prompting President Donald J. Trump to intervene strongly against the Ukrainian leader’s “very disrespectful” behavior.
- Addressing a question from the press, Vance said that engaging in diplomacy may be “the path to peace and the path to prosperity” before Zelensky cut in to recall the beginnings of Ukraine’s conflict with Russia in 2014 and sarcastically ask him, “What kind of ‘diplomacy,’ J.D., are you asking about?”
- Vance responded in strong terms, saying it was “disrespectful” to attack the Trump administration in front of the media in this way, while Zelensky continued to snipe at him about his understanding of Ukraine’s problems. President Trump lost patience when Zelensky began lecturing Vance on the negative consequences he would feel if the conflict crossed his “nice ocean.”
- “Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel. You’re in no position to dictate what we’re going to feel,” Trump warned.
- “You’re not in a good position. You don’t have the cards right now,” the President continued.
- Zelensky shot back, saying that he was “not playing cards,” with Trump responding, “You’re playing cards. You’re gambling with the lives of millions of people. You’re gambling with World War III. And what you’re doing is very disrespectful to the country, this country, that’s backed you far more than a lot of people said they should have.”
- “In this entire meeting, have you said ‘thank you’ once?” Vance asked, recalling how Zelensky campaigned for Kamala Harris in Pennsylvania in 2024.
- President Trump told Zelensky in no uncertain terms he was “not winning” without American support, praising the bravery of Ukraine’s soldiers but stressing their reliance on American equipment. “Your people are dying. You’re running low on soldiers… And then you say, ‘I don’t want a ceasefire, I don’t want a ceasefire,’” he continued.
- “I’ve empowered you to be a tough guy, and I don’t think you’d be a tough guy without the United States,” Trump added bluntly. “Your people are very brave, but you’re either going to make a deal, or we’re out.”
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Important Takeaways:
- China is reacting angrily to President Trump’s pledge to impose an additional 10% tariff on its products, saying fentanyl is “the U.S.’s own problem.”
- Trump said the levy will take effect on Tuesday alongside a 25% tariff on products from Canada and Mexico. The Chinese tariff comes on top of a previously announced 10% tariff on products from the Asian superpower, ratcheting up tensions as the U.S. president says the trio of nations are letting deadly opioids pour into American communities.
- “China deplores and opposes this move, and will take what is necessary to firmly defend its legitimate interests,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said Friday. “The fentanyl issue is just an excuse the U.S. uses to impose tariffs on, pressure and blackmail China, and they punish us for helping them. This will not solve their concerns.”
- Chinese manufacturers make precursor chemicals for fentanyl that reach Mexico, where cartels finish the drug product and send it to U.S. communities. A tiny percentage is seized at the Canadian border but the White House stressed that domestic production is increasing in Canada and even small amounts can kill in large numbers.
- On Friday, Mr. Lin said China agreed to officially restrict fentanyl-related substances at Mr. Trump’s request in 2019. It also struck a deal with President Biden to crack down on the flow of precursor chemicals.
- “China has conducted counter narcotics cooperation with the U.S. side in a broad-based and in-depth way. The remarkable progress is there for all to see,” Mr. Lin said. “Pressuring, coercion and threat is not the right way to deal with China. Instead, mutual respect is the basic prerequisite.”
- Trump said there hasn’t been nearly enough progress and that families are being destroyed by tens of thousands of overdose deaths per year in the U.S.
- Countries like China and Mexico have suggested the U.S. is to blame for its crisis because too many people are addicted to drugs.
- “China is one of the world’s strictest countries on counter narcotics both in terms of policy and its implementation,” Mr. Lin said. “The fentanyl issue is the U.S.’s own problem.”
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Important Takeaways:
- America is falling behind its adversaries when it comes to technological advancement, commanders of special operations forces told the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday.
- Rear Adm. Milton Sands III, Maj. Gen. Peter Huntley, Lt. Gen. Jonathan Braga and Lt. Gen. Michael Conley all voiced concerns about special ops being bogged down by bureaucracy when it comes to making critical technological upgrades.
- Gen. Huntley, who leads the Marine Forces Special Operations Command, told lawmakers on Capitol Hill that modernization is “moving very fast” across the globe, but America’s ability to keep up with the pace is troublesome.
- As an example, Maj. Gen. Huntley spoke of the impact artificial intelligence has had on U.S. forces’ ability to “sense the enemy before they sense us,” an advantage America has enjoyed for decades.
- Rear Adm. Sands also issued a warning about the ability to “rapidly” get U.S. troops the equipment they need “to survive” the modern battlefield.
- “… our priority is getting equipment that’s required for the modern battlefield rapidly into the hands of our operators, and the reason is because they need it to survive,” Rear Adm. Sands told lawmakers
- Gen. Braga, commander of Army Special Operations Command, expressed similar concerns about how systems in place are impacting modernization.
- “Our people are great at innovating, they have fantastic ideas,” Lt. Gen. Braga told the lawmakers. He added, however, that the challenges with funding and bureaucratic processes that can make simple modifications take months or years. However, he suggested that streamlining funding and oversight processes could be possible solutions to these issues.
- The military leaders also mentioned the threats posed by non-state actors, with Maj. Gen. Huntley noting that they are rapidly upgrading when it comes to technological capabilities.
- “What they bring to the tactical fight is, frankly, pretty impressive,” Maj. Gen. Huntley said, adding that the forces “know what we have to do,” but the “critical” challenge is getting those capabilities into the hands of troops.
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Important Takeaways:
- Students attempted to plaster walls with Hamas propaganda proclaiming, “THE ENEMY WILL NOT SEE TOMORROW”
- Two Barnard College students in New York City have been expelled for their alleged roles in disrupting the first session of the History of Modern Israel course last month.
- The expulsions were made public by the Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a group that calls on Columbia University to divest from any association with Israel. Barnard and Columbia are affiliated institutions.
- In a statement to Fox News Digital, Barnard President Laura Rosenbury said that under federal law, the college can’t “comment on the academic and disciplinary records of students.”
- “That said, as a matter of principle and policy, Barnard will always take decisive action to protect our community as a place where learning thrives, individuals feel safe, and higher education is celebrated,” Rosenbury wrote, without confirming the expulsions. “This means upholding the highest standards and acting when those standards are threatened.”
- “When rules are broken, when there is no remorse, no reflection, and no willingness to change, we must act,” she added. “Expulsion is always an extraordinary measure, but so too is our commitment to respect, inclusion, and the integrity of the academic experience. At Barnard, we always fiercely defend our values. At Barnard, we always reject harassment and discrimination in all forms. And at Barnard, we always do what is right, not what is easy.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Hamas returned four more hostage bodies and Israel released hundreds of Palestinian prisoners following a day of mourning as Israel buried the bodies of Shiri Bibas and her two little boys – the youngest hostages murdered and held by Hamas for more than 500 days.
- In the very early Thursday morning hours, without any fanfare, Hamas handed over the bodies of four Israeli hostages to the Red Cross, who passed them over to the Israeli police and the Israel Defense Forces.
- The bodies of Tsachi Idan from Kibbutz Nahal Oz, Itzhak Elgarat and Ohad Yahalomi, both from Kibbutz Nir Oz, and 85-year-old Shlomo Mantzur from Kibbutz Kissufim were identified by morning.
- President Isaac Herzog posted on X, “In this painful moment, there is some solace in knowing that they will be laid to rest in dignity in Israel.”
- Israel freed more than 600 Palestinian prisoners, including 71 who were serving life sentences and 60 with long prison sentences.
- The overnight releases complete the first phase of exchanges of about 1,800 Palestinian prisoners for 33 hostages, leaving 59 hostages in Hamas captivity. It’s believed approximately 20 of the 59 are still alive.
- However, President Donald Trump’s Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff, who has postponed his arrival in the region, says he believes he can get an extension of Phase One and the release of more hostages.
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Important Takeaways:
- British legacy media and establishment politicians were quick to accuse U.S. Vice President JD Vance of spreading “misinformation” after he asserted at the Munich Security Conference earlier this month that people could be arrested for praying in their homes if they live within the 200-metre (656ft) protest prohibition zones surrounding abortion clinics in Scotland.
- However, in an interview with BBC Scotland’s Scotcast podcast, the legislation’s author, Gillian Mackay, appeared to confirm Vance’s warnings.
- Despite having initially branded the vice president’s comments as “nonsense” and “shocking and shameless misinformation”, the leftist lawmaker admitted that prayer within a home could fall afoul of the law.
- Asked whether someone was seen visibly praying at their window within the exclusion zone was committing an offence, the Member of the Scottish Parliament said: “That then depends on who’s passing the window.”
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Important Takeaways:
- The order implements the Department of Government Efficiency’s “Cost Efficiency Initiative,” which aims to ensure that “government spending is transparent and government employees are accountable to the American public.”
- The pause of credit card usage comes a week after DOGE discovered nearly $40 billion in spending last year linked to government-issued plastic.
- “To the maximum extent permitted by law, all credit cards held by agency employees shall be treated as frozen for 30 days from the date of this order,” reads the section on credit cards.
- The order includes exceptions for “any credit cards held by employees engaged in, or charges related to employees utilizing such credit cards for, disaster relief or natural disaster response benefits or operations or other critical services” as determined by the agency heads in consultation with DOGE.
- The cost-cutting program, led by billionaire Elon Musk, has pledged to “simplify” the federal government’s credit card program, which is managed by the General Services Administration (GSA).
- The US government currently has about 4.6 million active credit cards or credit card accounts on file – more than the total number of federal workers (about 3 million), not including government contractors and active-duty military personnel.
- Around 90 million unique transactions were made on the cards in fiscal year 2024, running up about $40 billion in bills for the federal government…
- For decades, the federal government has been plagued with scandals involving the use of taxpayer-funded credit cards.
- Over the years, government watchdogs have found everything from adult entertainment to Lego toys to lavish, multi-course meals being charged to taxpayers.
- Trump’s executive order also directs federal agencies to work with DOGE to “build a centralized technological system” in an effort to “seamlessly record every payment issued by the agency pursuant to each of the agency’s covered contracts and grants, along with a brief, written justification for each payment submitted by the agency employee who approved the payment.”
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Important Takeaways:
- EXECUTIVE ORDER
- By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America including the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) (“NEA”), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code, it is hereby ordered:
- Section 1. The energy and critical minerals (“energy”) identification, leasing, development, production, transportation, refining, and generation capacity of the United States are all far too inadequate to meet our Nation’s needs. We need a reliable, diversified, and affordable supply of energy to drive our Nation’s manufacturing, transportation, agriculture, and defense industries, and to sustain the basics of modern life and military preparedness. Caused by the harmful and shortsighted policies of the previous administration, our Nation’s inadequate energy supply and infrastructure causes and makes worse the high energy prices that devastate Americans, particularly those living on low- and fixed-incomes.
- This active threat to the American people from high energy prices is exacerbated by our Nation’s diminished capacity to insulate itself from hostile foreign actors. Energy security is an increasingly crucial theater of global competition. In an effort to harm the American people, hostile state and non-state foreign actors have targeted our domestic energy infrastructure, weaponized our reliance on foreign energy, and abused their ability to cause dramatic swings within international commodity markets. An affordable and reliable domestic supply of energy is a fundamental requirement for the national and economic security of any nation.
- The integrity and expansion of our Nation’s energy infrastructure —- from coast to coast -— is an immediate and pressing priority for the protection of the United States’ national and economic security. It is imperative that the Federal government puts the physical and economic wellbeing of the American people first.
- Moreover, the United States has the potential to use its unrealized energy resources domestically, and to sell to international allies and partners a reliable, diversified, and affordable supply of energy. This would create jobs and economic prosperity for Americans forgotten in the present economy, improve the United States’ trade balance, help our country compete with hostile foreign powers, strengthen relations with allies and partners, and support international peace and security. Accordingly, our Nation’s dangerous energy situation inflicts unnecessary and perilous constraints on our foreign policy.
- The policies of the previous administration have driven our Nation into a national emergency, where a precariously inadequate and intermittent energy supply, and an increasingly unreliable grid, require swift and decisive action. Without immediate remedy, this situation will dramatically deteriorate in the near future due to a high demand for energy and natural resources to power the next generation of technology. The United States’ ability to remain at the forefront of technological innovation depends on a reliable supply of energy and the integrity of our Nation’s electrical grid. Our Nation’s current inadequate development of domestic energy resources leaves us vulnerable to hostile foreign actors and poses an imminent and growing threat to the United States’ prosperity and national security.
- These numerous problems are most pronounced in our Nation’s Northeast and West Coast, where dangerous State and local policies jeopardize our Nation’s core national defense and security needs, and devastate the prosperity of not only local residents but the entire United States population. The United States’ insufficient energy production, transportation, refining, and generation constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to our Nation’s economy, national security, and foreign policy. In light of these findings, I hereby declare a national emergency.
- [Read more on the White House website]
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