Flotsam and Jetsam - Trump Dumps Dept. of Ed - Judicial War Heats Up

Rick Moran at PJM, Trump to Sign Order Eliminating Education Department. Now Comes the Hard Part. "the hard part is now trying to convince almost every Republican in the House and Senate, plus at least seven Democratic senators, to defy Weingarten and her millions of dollars in campaign contributions and thousands of campaign volunteers and vote to abolish the Education Department." Ben Whedon at JTN reports Trump signs executive order to begin closing Education Department. "Prior to the signing, McMahon had already moved to drastically cut the department’s staff and nearly halved its total headcount." Matt Margolis at PJM, Trump Dismantles Department of Education With New Executive Order. James Lynch at NRO, Trump Signs Executive Order Dismantling Department of Education. Sundance at CTH hosts President Trump Signs Executive Order and Holds Media Availability and President Trump Signs Executive Order and Holds Media Availability. The White House Announcement, Improving Education Outcomes by Empowering Parents, States, and Communities. Veronique de Rugy says Invest in Education, Not the Department of Education.

At the WSJ, Europe Hatches Plans for Ukraine Peacekeepers Without U.S. "Defense chiefs from the ‘coalition of the willing’ discuss how best to put boots on the ground in Ukraine if there is peace." Good. Breitbart, Trump on Ukraine War, Calls with Zelensky, Putin: ‘Two Very Good Conversations,’ ‘I Do Believe a Deal Will Be Worked Out’. From Sundance, ICYMI – Readout from Secretary Marco Rubio and Nat Sec Advisor Mike Waltz on POTUS Phone Call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and German Govt Warns Travelers Not to Break U.S Law During Trump Administration or They Might Lose Visa Access or Future Entry. I think that's good advice in any administration. WSJ reports China’s Xi Is Angered by Panama Port Deal That Trump Touted as a Win, "Beijing leader’s displeasure finds outlet in critical commentaries, but his tools to block sale by Hong Kong company are limited." Michael Rubin at 1945 wonders Does Iran Want a War with America? Probably; they don't strike me as the most stable lot.

From Fox, Musk says DOGE cuts necessary or 'ship of America will sink'. At Da Caller, Ron Paul writes DOGE Is the Necessary Shock To System DC Swamp Has Long Feared. Jon Gabriel at Discourse is still Waiting for the Chainsaw. "In spite of wailing from professional Washington, DOGE is not doing nearly enough to make a real dent in out-of-control government spending." "I come from the Ron Swanson school of government spending. If an official says, “We need to cut expenditures by 32%,” I’ll reply, “Let’s make it an even 40,” before starting a chant of “Slash it! Slash it!”" Da Wire reports from Inside The Now-Shuttered Federal Agency Where Employees Lived ‘Like Reigning Kings’ "Employees of DOGE's latest target spent taxpayer money on exotic vacations, portraits, and more." Ace, DOGE Shuts Down an Agency Which Seemingly Existed Only to Fill the Pockets of Its Barely-Working "Employees" -- They "Lived Like Kings." Streiff at RedState reports on the Showdown at Foggy Bottom: DOGE Uses Police to Evict Barricaded Bureaucrats. Ace, DOGE Calls the Cops to Evict "US Institute of Peace" "Workers" Who Barricaded Themselves Inside Their Grifter Offices. "This particular grifter office refused to allow DOGE to even enter and sued to keep DOGE out. The judge, miraculously, declined to stop the president's appointed officials from doing their jobs." Madeline Leesman at TownHall, Another DOGE Standoff Just Turned Into a Lawsuit. Breitbart reports on FEMA Fraud: 20 Times More Applicants than Homes in Los Angeles Fires. At Defense Scoop, Officials shed light on ‘active process’ to shrink DOD’s workforce by more than 50,000 personnel, "Officials provided new numbers and an inside look at unfolding plans to dramatically reduce the Defense Department's civilian staff."

Capt. Ed at Hat Hair, Bondi Announces Arrests in Three Domestic-Terror Attacks on Tesla. Ace, Trantifa Activist -- or, a "Woman" as the Media Insists -- Arrested In Connection With Explosives Found at a Tesla Dealership She Was "Protesting". "Woman." Stacy McCain notes As Ace Says, ‘Woman’ "The scare-quotes are necessary for obvious reasons and, just by the way, that headline is from Fox News. The arrest happened last month. Did you know that every Tesla automobile has a built-in security camera? The idiots committing these acts of terroristic vandalism don’t seem to be aware of this security feature, and the fact that they could spend years in prison doesn’t seem to have occurred to them, either. And I just want to say, Thank you, stupid Democrats, for giving us an excuse to send you to prison with a felony conviction that, in most states, will prohibit you from voting. Wile E. Coyote could not be reached for comment." Jim Treacher says "Good luck" tp Dems' New Plan to Stop Musk: Firebomb Some Teslas. At Bravo Blue John Lucas says "Take this seriously please", Domestic Terrorism Alert. Jordan Schachtel at the Dossier warns 'Tesla Takedown' is a full-fledged domestic terrorism movement, "Prosecutors on the state and federal levels must take action." A Thread from Insurrection Barbie @DefiyantlyFree, "Indivisible is definitely the ring leader of the Tesla Takedown domestic terrorism movement. They are the main organizers, they host the weekly calls to lay out their plans. Today was one of them. The call was one hour and ten mins and had some very interesting moments. . . . 1. One of the speakers is a federal employee who belongs to the American Federation of Government Employees Union. For that that don’t remember, they are one of the six groups that teamed up on December 19, 2024, to take down Trump. Marc Elias launched Civil Service Strong . . . One of the most interesting parts of this one hour call was that Jasmine Crockett came on to speak because clearly she is part of this entire takedown Elon Musk apparatus. A sitting member of Congress is working with Indivisible to take down an American car company and destroy its owner." Robby Starbuck @robbystarbuck, "Over the next few days you’re going to see an organized progressional protest effort at Tesla stores put together by a group called Indivisible. George Soros foundation has given Indivisible nearly $8 million dollars for their "activism". They’re calling these "Tesla takedown" events and they’re doing it in the midst of a domestic terror spree targeting Tesla and Tesla owners. They have these planned across the entire country. These images are just six examples. How can this not be seen as encouraging more violence and terrorism? I personally think that any violence occurring near locations they’ve chosen should result in Soros, his foundation, Indivisible and their founders being held criminally accountable as co-conspirators. The indivisible founders are Ezra Levin and his wife Leah Greenberg. They became "resistance" figures during Trump’s first term and their work is celebrated by elected Democrats. So yeah, it’s clear to me that the Democrats and their typical thugs are organizing this insanity. There’s reportedly even a form protest leaders can fill out to receive "reimbursement" payments for their protests. . ." Breitbart hears John Cusack at ‘TeslaTakedown Mass Mobilizing’ Call : Elon Musk Is ‘Literally Killing People/’ Right Angle News Network @Rightanglenews, "BREAKING - A man from Indianapolis smears his OWN fecal matter onto a Cybertruck. This is the state of the democrats." Matt Margolis cites Musk: ‘There’s Some Kind of Mental Illness’ Behind Tesla Attacks. At RCD, Tesla Terrorists. At Hollywood in Toto, Late Night Laughs While Tesla Dealerships Burn "Audiences at 'Jimmy Kimmel Live,' 'Daily Show' giggle over domestic terrorism." Matt Margolis, Here's How ‘The Daily Show’ Audience Reacted to Domestic Terrorism Against Tesla and CNN Host Compares Anti-Tesla Terror Attacks to Conservative Boycotts. Seth Dillon@SethDillon, "From the moment he took over we kept hearing, "Twitter is dying."" Quote New York Post @nypost, "Elon Musk’s X regains $44 billion valuation in major comeback: reports https://trib.al/nhb85Ho" Kevin Downey at PJM says Unlike Raccoons, Demo-Communists Don't Learn From Their Mistakes.

PJM's Rick Moran sees Trump's Fight With the Federal Judiciary Is Coming to a Head. Benjamin Weingarten warns Chief Justice Roberts' Impeachment Rebuke Delegitimizes the Court in a Bid to Save it, "His inclination to defend the radicals in robes burning down the judiciary — and to let cases sufficiently ripen while the entire institution rots — is stunning." and at DCP he looks at Injunction Dysfunction or Tyrant Disruption? Trump-Era Judicial Paralysis Explained. Eddie Scarry at Da Fed, President Not Allowed To Solve Problems He Was Elected To Fix, Judges Order. The Divine Ms. Devine at NYPo, Trump is fighting a cartel of vile, corrupt and far-left judges trying to kill his campaign promises. Stephan Kruiser at PJM issues a Spoiler Alert — Trump Is Going to Outlast Wearisome Activist Judges. From Fox, DeSantis proposes solution as Trump's agenda is stymied by judges. "Congress has the authority to strip jurisdiction of the federal courts to decide these cases in the first place. The sabotaging of President Trump’s agenda by ‘resistance’ judges was predictable — why no jurisdiction-stripping bills tee’d up at the onset of this Congress?" DeSantis wrote in a Wednesday post on X. When someone responded by asking how such a move could pass when 60 votes would be needed to push it through the Senate, DeSantis replied, "Attach it to a ‘must pass' bill…" At Da Blaze, another idea for The legal move that could stop anti-Trump lawsuits in their tracks, invoking the ancient writ of prohibition. "According to one appellate court, to invoke the writ, there needs to be a clear instance of a court violating its jurisdiction without any other available way to challenge its actions — precisely the situation Trump faces." 

From Fox, 'Woefully insufficient': US judge reams Trump admin for days-late deportation info. Acyn @Acyn "Bondi: This judge has no right to ask those questions. The judge had no business, no power to do what he did. This judge had no right to do that.." “They’re meddling in foreign affairs. They’re meddling in our government,” she told the outlet. “And the question should be, why is a judge trying to protect terrorists who have invaded our country over American citizens?” NewsMax says Trump is Confident Supreme Court Will Back Deportation Fights. Ward Clarke at RedState reports a Radical Judge Blocks Trump Admin's Military Transgender Ban - but There's a Problem. She did her own biased "research". Judges are supposed to judge based on the lawyer's arguments. Laura Powell @LauraPowellEsq "Judge Reyes’s opinion relies in part on her independent research into disorders of sexual development (DSD), which is not part of the record. Judges are not allowed to do this. Not surprisingly, her information is wrong. For example, she cites the erroneous figure that 1.7% of Americans are intersex. She also makes assertions about where people with DSDs would be housed, based on no evidence whatsoever. (She asked the DOJ attorney the answer to that question, and he said he did not know.) This case has nothing to do with people with DSDs, many of whom were banned from serving in the military for years after the ban on trans people was lifted, which was never challenged. . . " From the Pop Times, Revealed: First Openly Gay Biden Judge Who Blocked Military’s Trans Policy Donated to Various Democratic Candidates and Causes. At NYPo Ryan King reports Hegseth vows to appeal judge’s block on transgender troop ban: ‘We will win’ and Victor Nava sees a Federal judge temporarily blocks DOGE from accessing personal info from Social Security Administration: ‘Fishing expedition’.

The Divine Ms. Devine warns FBI’s Kash Patel must make good on promise to reform the bureau — or it will be just another hollow sound bite. It won't be easy. They're exceptionally sneaky and underhanded. 

Fred Gray as Spec World wonders Did Joe Biden’s presidency really happen? "The 46th presidency only ended eight weeks ago and already Biden is a ghost." He is not missed. Rasmussen Reports on X: "Just In - WOW Massive majority approves of Trump nullifying Biden autopen pardons, believe WH staff autopened these and other documents without Biden knowledge or approval. Plurality (almost a majority) say to impeach DC Judge Boasberg Both for early next week ... stay tuned" / X. Breitbart cites Peter Navarro: Virtually All New Jobs Under Joe Biden Were Taken by Illegal Immigrants. Well, after all, they were his most loyal voters. At LifeZette, FBI Finally Releases Docs to Jim Jordan on Joe Biden’s DOJ ‘Weaponization’ Scandals. Dave Strom at Hat Hair on why BOOM! JD Vance Proves Once Again That He Is a Master Communicator. Greg Price@greg_price11, "@VinceCoglianese: "How are you doing the job differently than Kamala did it?" @JDVance: "Well, I don't have four shots of Vodka before every meeting.""

Scott Pinsker at PJM thinks The Democratic Party Is Ripe for a Hostile Takeover. These Two People Will Do It. AOC and Bernie. Rusty Weiss at RedState, Dem Infighting Continues As Sen Slotkin Blasts AOC, Bernie and Jasmine: ‘What Have They Actually Done?’ Althouse, "There is certainly enough anger in the Democratic Party to create its own Tea Party. Democrats loathe Republicans..." Writes David French, in "The Last Thing Democrats Need Is Their Own Tea Party" (NYT)," and "Democrats did worse in the 2024 election than you think. They completely failed to win over less engaged voters..." "... who are becoming much more Republican. The higher the turnout, the more these voters show up and the worse it is for Democrats.... Low turnout is now the Democrats’ BFF!..." Guy Benson at TownHall, says These 2024 Election Stats Absolutely Stunned Liberal Data Analysts Drew Berquist, Chuck Schumer Says the Quiet Part Out Loud: The Left Wants to Control Everything. Dave Strom, Trump's Poll Numbers With This Group Are AWFL! Mitch Berg at Hat Hair VIP sees Minnesota Democrats Finding Middle Ground On (Checks Notes) "Minor Attraction"? Another solid voting bloc. 

America First Legal@America1stLegal, "1/ BREAKING — Explosive new documents expose a massive government-backed censorship operation orchestrated by USAID, the Global Engagement Center, the UK government, and media firms to manipulate public discourse and silence Americans." WaEx reports Wikipedia posts updated to smear Patel, Hegseth, Gabbard: Watchdog, never trust Wikipedia on controversial subjects. Dave Strom takes a look at a A Perfect Leftist Hoax. 

From Althouse, "The First Amendment protects speech many of us find wrongheaded or deeply offensive..." ""... including anti-Israel advocacy and even antisemitic advocacy. The government may not threaten funding cuts as a tool to pressure recipients into suppressing such viewpoints. This is especially so for universities, which should be committed to respecting free speech. At the same time, the First Amendment of course doesn’t protect antisemitic violence, true threats of violence, or certain kinds of speech that may properly be labeled 'harassment.' Title VI rightly requires universities to protect their students and other community members from such behavior. But the lines between legally unprotected harassment on the one hand and protected speech on the other are notoriously difficult to draw and are often fact-specific. In part because of that, any sanctions imposed on universities for Title VI violations must follow that statute’s well-established procedural rules, which help make clear what speech is sanctionable and what speech is constitutionally protected. Yet the administration’s March 7 cancellation of $400 million in federal funding to Columbia University did not adhere to such procedural safeguards...." From "A Statement from Constitutional Law Scholars on Columbia/Eugene Volokh, Michael C. Dorf, David Cole, and 15 other scholars/The government may not threaten funding cuts as a tool to pressure recipients into suppressing First Amendment–protected speech" (NYRB)." From Campus Reform, Pro-Hamas Columbia prof linked to millions in NIH funding "City Journal also reports that Manly has involvement in approximately $100 million in federal grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for the last several decades. The outlet notes that much of her work consists of the “so-called social determinants of health thesis, posits that racism, sexism, and homophobia can cause brain disease in ‘Black and Latinx communities’—a thesis that critics have described as pseudo-science.”" From the College Fix, Michigan State University opens $38 million ‘sanctuary’ for ‘minorities’. They clearly don't need any more of our money. Dave Strom hears Most College Presidents Want Tenure Gone. Capt. Ed has a Memo to Academia: State Dept Is Serious About Kicking Out Terror-Linked Foreigners. 

WokeSpy is pretty happy that Trump Freezes $175 Million in Federal Funding to University of Pennsylvania for Including a Trans Athlete. From VodkaPundit at Insty another of  DISPATCHES FROM THE LEFT’S WAR ON WOMEN GIRLS: "What Dems Have Done to Deerfield girl—and the rest of Illinois—is Just Plain AWFL.  You hear that gruesome story of the 13-year-old middle-school girl from Deerfield confronted by school officials and ordered to disrobe in front of a male classmate? It sounds too AWFL to be true. But it happened, according to her mother Nicole Georgas who said Tuesday she was filing a police complaint with the police in Deerfield on top of a complaint she filed with the U.S. Department of Justice. The mom alone standing up for her daughter’s privacy was repeatedly mocked and insulted by hostile trans activists as she addressed a crowded District 109 School Board meeting. The story has gone viral world-wide and was broken by the Lake County Gazette and Dan Proft’s radio show “The Morning Answer.” To understand this bizzarro world, please understand this: Even though President Donald Trump has signed an executive order protecting girls’ privacy, and has vowed to cut federal education funding to rogue states, the Illinois Democrats are funded by billionaire Gov. JB Pritzker, who is the bankrupt state’s leading activist for transexuals. And he’s running for president."