Monday, November 25, 2024

November 25, 2024

Good morning,

Welcome to the news for independent thinkers

Leading the News . . .

Donald Trump to kick transgender troops out of US military . . . Donald Trump is planning an executive order that would lead to the removal of all transgender members of the US military, defense sources say. The order could come on his first day back in the White House, January 20. There are believed to be about 15,000 active service personnel who are transgender. They would be medically discharged, which would determine that they were unfit to serve. Trump has nominated Pete Hegseth, 44, as his defence secretary. The Fox News host and former major in the US National Guard has publicly railed against "weak" and "effeminate" leadership in the military. Times of London

Politics

Harris is telling her advisers and allies to keep her political options open . . . But privately, the vice president has been instructing advisers and allies to keep her options open — whether for a possible 2028 presidential run, or even to run for governor in her home state of California in two years. As Harris has repeated in phone calls, "I am staying in the fight." She is expected to explore those and other possible paths forward with family members over the winter holiday season. Politico

Republicans around the country reported responded with a single word: "Great."

Trump Treasury pick Scott Bessent to prioritize tax cuts . . . President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for U.S. Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, will prioritize delivering on election tax cut pledges, he told the Wall Street Journal in an interview published on Sunday. Bessent told the WSJ that tax cut measures would include making Trump's first term tax cuts permanent, as well as eliminating taxes on tips, social-security benefits and overtime pay. Bessent would also focus on enacting tariffs, cutting spending and maintaining the status of the dollar as the world's reserve currency. Reuters

'Shell-shocked' Democrats struggle to mount a resistance to Trump

MTG Suggests NPR Could Be In DOGE's Crosshairs . . . President-elect Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) could set its sights on government-funded media programs like National Public Radio, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) said on Sunday. Greene has been tasked with heading a new House Oversight subcommittee to work with DOGE leaders Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. "We will be looking at everything from government-funded media programs like NPR that spread nothing but Democrat propaganda," Greene said. Daily Wire

Gaetz says he will not return to Congress

Harris vacations in Hawaii after election loss as DNC staffers face layoffs . . . Vice President Kamala Harris has kept a low profile since losing the election to President-elect Trump, vacationing in Hawaii with second gentleman Doug Emhoff since last week. The timing of the vice president's trip has generated questions, with some noting that many DNC staffers are uncertain about their futures while others had been surprised by sudden layoffs. Fox News

Biden to decide whether to pardon Hunter . . . Thanks to President Joe Biden's Justice Department, Donald Trump is headed to the White House, and his son Hunter might be headed to prison. And believe it or not, the drama will intensify shortly. In a matter of weeks, the younger Biden is set to be sentenced in two different criminal courts. On Dec. 12, he will appear in federal court in Delaware, where he was convicted over the summer of buying a gun in 2018 while addicted to drugs. Several days later, he is set to appear before a federal judge in Los Angeles for sentencing on tax fraud charges. Politico

Culture

Christopher Rufo Has Trump's Ear and Wants to End DEI for Good . . , The first time then-President Donald Trump asked Christopher Rufo to come to Washington for a meeting with his team, the result was a 2020 executive order banning race or sex stereotyping in the federal government. Now Rufo has an invitation to Mar-a-Lago, where he will present the president-elect's team with a plan to geld American universities by withholding money if they don't pull back on diversity measures. It is the latest chapter in Rufo's quest to end activities that he says divide Americans and foster bias against different groups, including white men. The documentary filmmaker and writer has been waging public fights with schools, business and government. Wall Street Journal

Oregon Poised To Force Health Insurers To Cover Trans Genital Surgeries for Children . . . Oregon officials are set to require health insurers, both public and private, to cover procedures like sex-change surgeries and cross-sex hormones for all ages. Those that fail to do so risk losing their state licenses. The proposed rule from Oregon's Department of Consumer and Business Services relies on the latest standards of care developed by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, which called transgender genital surgeries and other procedures "medically necessary" to justify expanding insurance coverage. Washington Free Beacon

Georgia mom arrested after letting her 10-year-old walk home alone fighting back against nanny state . . . A Georgia mother of four arrested in front of her children after allowing her 10-year-old son to walk home alone last month isn't going away quietly — and is using her newfound profile to make the case for free-range parents and their kids everywhere. Brittany Patterson, 41, was taken into custody and slapped with child endangerment-related charges by the Fannin County Sheriff's Department on Oct. 30. She's been ruthlessly fighting back ever since, including refusing to accept a plea deal. New York Post

National Security

Trump border czar warns sanctuary cities could be prosecuted if they harbor aliens . . . President-elect Donald Trump's border czar is warning sanctuary cities of dire consequences if they refuse to turn over illegal immigrants, saying he'll seek Justice Department authority to charge officials with obstruction and harboring if they don't turn over illegal border crossers in their custody. "They need to be aware of a couple things. No. 1, impeding a federal law enforcement officer is a crime. No. 2, if you knowingly harbor or conceal an illegal alien from ICE, that's a crime," Tom Homan said. Just the News

Rebekah Koffler on Fox News: We're inching toward nuclear war with Russia

Money

Privacy expert sounds alarm over new Apple feature: 'It accesses your banking apps' . . . Apple Intelligence, released last month, embeds into the operating system, allowing it to pull information information from apps and tack action within them. Chip Hallett, author of The Ultimate Privacy Playbook, warned that the process lets the AI learn how people use their banking and financial apps and location maps. However, there are ways to block the tech from analyzing sensitive information stored on your smartphone. There is a hidden 'switch off' function in Settings, which lives in Apple Intelligence and & Siri. Daily Mail

You should also know

How Universities Cracked Down on Pro-Palestinian Activism . . . Colleges and universities have tightened rules around protests, locked campus gates and handed down stricter punishments after the disruptions of pro-Palestinian demonstrations and encampments last spring. The efforts seem to be working. Universities have seen just under 950 protest events this semester so far, compared to 3,000 last semester. New York Times

Legendary Game Show Host Chuck Woolery Dead At 83 . . . Chuck Woolery, the host of iconic game shows such as Love Connection and Wheel of Fortune, and later a conservative podcast host who backed Donald Trump, has died at the age of 83. Woolery hosted several television staples, earning a daytime Emmy nomination in 1978 and a place in the American TV Game Show Hall of Fame in 2007. He began his career as the first host of Wheel of Fortune in 1975, later making Love Connection a pop culture phenomenon during its 11-season run. Newsweek

New York Times has the top podcast, Joe Rogan third

Pro-Trump Influencers Disrupting Political Media . . . President-elect Donald Trump's victory in the 2024 presidential election proved that a candidate could win without catering to the legacy media. In the weeks before Election Day, Trump shunned CBS News' "60 Minutes" and other corporate media outlets in favor of modern-day influencers like Joe Rogan, Theo Von, and Logan Paul. Megyn Kelly, whose show is regularly among the top 10 podcasts, joined Trump on the campaign trail in Pittsburgh. Daily Signal

Guilty Pleasures

President and vice president of the Philippines are trying to kill each other . . . Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Monday described a public threat by the vice president to have him killed by an assassin as a criminal plot and vowed to fight it, in a looming showdown between the country's two top leaders. Vice President Sara Duterte said Saturday in an online news conference that she has contracted an assassin to kill the president, his wife and the speaker of the House of Representatives if she herself is killed, in a threat she warned was not a joke. Associated Press

Every vice president has one of the three criteria needed to convict of murder: Motive

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