Friday, March 7, 2025

March 7, 2025

Good morning,

Welcome to the news for independent thinkers

Leading the News . . .

Trump picks sides in MAGA power struggle as Elon Musk drops his chainsaw and leaves federal cuts to Cabinet . . . Donald Trump attempted to settle a MAGA power struggle Thursday by telling Elon Musk to drop the chainsaw and leave the drastic cuts across federal departments to his Cabinet secretaries. The decision came in a meeting after a tumultuous few weeks of legal challenges and lawsuits from federal workers as Musk fired thousands and literally wielded a power tool at CPAC while promising to take 'a chainsaw to bureaucracy.' 'I don't want to see a big cut where a lot of good people are cut,' Trump said after the Cabinet meeting. Daily Mail

Politics

Newsom's move on trans athletes jolts 2028 campaign . . . Gavin Newsom's provocative new position on trans athletes on Thursday reopened a rift in the Democratic Party that could serve as one of the earliest flash points in the party's 2028 primary. Within hours of the California governor condemning trans athletes playing in female sports — shocking his party in his home state — some Democrats unloaded on the likely presidential contender. Politico

Any principles here? At least AOC is consistent.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett ignites anger on the right after ruling against Trump . . . The Supreme Court's closely divided decision this week to reject the Trump administration's freeze on foreign aid unleashed a torrent of vitriol from the president's supporters largely aimed at a single justice — Amy Coney Barrett. On podcasts and social media, conservative allies of President Donald Trump called the former law professor and appeals court judge "evil," a "closet Democrat" and a "DEI hire." Washington Post

Trump orders suspension of security clearances from law firm behind debunked Steele Dossier . . . President Donald Trump has ordered the suspension of any active security clearances held by lawyers at the law firm that assisted Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign in funding the debunked and anti-Trump Steele Dossier. Trump's new order directed the pulling of security clearances from the notorious firm, limited the hiring of lawyers from the legal outfit, and placed other limitations on the firm's access to classified information. Just the News

Sex, Drinking and Dementia: 25 Lawmakers Spill on What Congress Is Really Like

Nobody's buying Hunter Biden's art anymore, and he even lost his home . . . Hunter Biden has fallen on tough financial times amid his legal woes and his father's departure from the White House. The former president's son, in a filing with a federal court this week, said he's struggling to sell his artwork and his book sales have plummeted as well. He also lost his rental home in the California wildfires and can't find a place to live. He told the judge he's in such financial straits that he has to drop a lawsuit he'd filed against a former Trump aide, and he hinted some other civil lawsuits he's filed may also have to end. Washington Times

The most comtemptable character in America is finally getting his due now that he lacks White House protection.

Culture

D.C. reparations law takes effect, opening door for payments to Black residents . . . A law letting the District of Columbia dole out reparations took effect Thursday after clearing the monthlong review period in a Republican-controlled Congress. The D.C. Council can now study how to compensate Black residents who are descendants of slaves or have been affected by Jim Crow-era policies. The law doesn't guarantee what the payments "or other forms of redress" would look like. Washington Times

Payton McNabb was Permanently Injured by a Male in Women's Sports. Then, Her Sorority Kicked Her Out. . . . Payton McNabb, the former high school volleyball player whose sports career was ruined after a male spiked the ball in her face, also faced punishment from her sorority for the crime of confronting a man who was using the women's restroom. The sorority Delta Zeta expelled McNabb on May 20, 2024, finding her guilty of violating the sorority's "Anti-Bullying Policy" and of engaging in "Moral-Prejudicial Conduct." Daily Signal

Cal Poly allegedly Told Jewish Students To 'Hide Their Jewish Identity' To Avoid Anti-Semitic Harassment . . . After Jewish students at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, were taunted with anti-Semitic slurs and pelted with fake blood, administrators encouraged them to "hide their Jewish identity to avoid being targeted," according to a federal civil rights complaint filed against the school. The students said pro-Hamas activists harassed them as they celebrated the High Holiday of Sukkot, holding a demonstration next to their religious ceremony and chalking "inflammatory anti-Semitic messages" near the religious service, "including 'Go Away Nazis.'" Washington Free Beacon

Senate Democrats' impending choice: Shutdown or surrender . . . Senate Democrats have a fast-approaching dilemma: Vote for a spending bill unilaterally drafted by House Republicans or engage in the kind of shutdown brinkmanship they've long opposed. It isn't a decision they'll be able to put off for much longer. House GOP leaders are poised early next week to send a bill to the floor that would largely hold current spending levels in place through the end of September. Politico

International

Worst violence in Syria since Assad fall as dozens killed in clashes . . . Forces linked to Syria's new rulers have engaged in heavy fighting with fighters loyal to deposed President Bashar al-Assad in a coastal area of the country. It is the worst violence in Syria since rebels toppled Assad in December and installed an Islamist transitional government. A war monitoring group, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said more than 70 people have been killed. BBC

Money

Trump shifts tariff strategy amid market turmoil . . . President Trump moved Thursday to shield thousands of goods from 25% tariffs he levied on imports from Canada and Mexico this week but said he was not backing away from a plan to use tariffs to equalize trade imbalances and return manufacturing jobs to the U.S. The president signed two executive orders providing a monthlong exemption for all goods in the 2020 United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement. On Wednesday, Mr. Trump carved out exemptions for auto manufacturers. The tariffs had wiped out months of gains on Wall Street. Washington Times

Trump creates Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, other cryptocurrencies to be used in stockpile . . . President Trump, late Thursday, signed an executive order to establish a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. Crypto Czar David Sachs celebrated the move via a post on X. "The Reserve will be capitalized with Bitcoin owned by the federal government that was forfeited as part of criminal or civil asset forfeiture proceedings. This means it will not cost taxpayers a dime," he wrote. Fox Business

Walgreens Goes From $100 Billion Health Giant to Private-Equity Salvage Project . . . Not much has gone right for Walgreens in the past decade. Customers bought more and more household items online at sites such as Amazon.com, instead of Walgreens's more than 8,000 stores across the U.S. The pharmacy chain inked deals with other drug suppliers and doctors offices, but stood pat while rivals, including CVS and Express Scripts, merged with big health insurers, gaining control of the medical-reimbursement purse strings that were squeezing pharmacies. Wall Street Journal

You should also know

Tesla's Fortunes Fall as Musk Rises in Trump World . . . Elon Musk's pledge to reduce the world's reliance on fossil fuels and his push to broaden the appeal of electric cars attracted legions of buyers looking to make a statement—to declare their allegiance to his grand vision of techno-environmentalism. Now that Musk has allied himself with Donald Trump and plunged into the deep end of national politics, many Tesla owners and would-be buyers are asking themselves what kind of statement it makes to get behind the wheel of a Tesla these days. Such doubts have begun showing up in worrisome numbers for the company. Wall Street Journal

Alabama mother shocked after giving birth to enormous baby girl: 'Started freaking out' . . . An Alabama mother was left in disbelief Tuesday when she gave birth to a baby girl twice the size of a newborn. Pamela Mann welcomed her daughter, Paris Halo, to the world during a scheduled C-section at the Alabama Grand View Medical Center. "The doctor pulls her out of me and all the nurses are like "Oh God!" Pamela Mann shared with TODAY. "I started freaking out because I had no idea what was happening." Mann's newborn, Paris Halo, weighed a whopping 13 pounds and four ounces when she was born at the Alabama Grand View Medical Center. New York Post

Guilty Pleasures

Social media explodes after 'cringe' TikTok video of AOC, House Dems goes viral: 'Couldn't get any lamer' . . . Democrats on social media were mocked by conservatives on Thursday over a viral video in which several of the elected officials pretended to be video game characters in a "choose your fighter parody." The video, posted by social media influencer Jessica Woo, featured Dem. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jasmine Crockett, Lauren Underwood, Katherine Clark, Judy Chu, and Susie Lee. The congresswomen in the video could be seen jumping up and down in a fighting position as if they were video game characters. Fox News