Treasury Secretary Bessent: It's Clear
The Russians Don't Like Trump's Peace
Proposal, So The Ukrainians Should
Posted By: sunset, 2/24/2025 12:35:55 AM
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Maria Bartiromo on FNC's "Sunday Morning Futures" that during his trip to Kiev last week, the Russians bombed the Ukrainian capital for the first time since November. "There was a missile barrage four hours before I got there. It was the first time that such a barrage had taken place since November," he recalled. "I think that was a strong signal from Russian leadership that they don't like this deal because it gives President Trump more negotiating leverage. So, if the Russians don't like it, my view is, Ukrainians should." "President Trump has structured this win-win deal," "[T]his will give President Trump a lever..."
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A 74-year-old Texas rancher has been killed after driving over an IED planted by a cartel on his land in Mexico, 80 miles south of the US border. Antonio Céspedes Saldierna died when his vehicle triggered the explosive device in Santa Rita, Tamaulipas, on Friday, police told ABC affiliate KRGV. The rancher lived just over the border from Mexico in the town of Brownsville. The explosion also killed a man in the same truck and injured a woman.
Antonio's son, Ramiro Céspedes, a US Army veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, said he was injured by an IED during his deployment. 'I consider this a terrorist attack
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Maria Bartiromo on FNC's "Sunday Morning Futures" that during his trip to Kiev last week, the Russians bombed the Ukrainian capital for the first time since November. "There was a missile barrage four hours before I got there. It was the first time that such a barrage had taken place since November," he recalled. "I think that was a strong signal from Russian leadership that they don't like this deal because it gives President Trump more negotiating leverage. So, if the Russians don't like it, my view is, Ukrainians should." "President Trump has structured this win-win deal," "[T]his will give President Trump a lever..."
Sen. Tina Smith won’t run again
12 replies
U.S. Sen. Tina Smith (D) shook up the state’s political landscape next week, announcing she won’t seek re-election when her seat is up in 2026.
Smith, 66, said she wanted to spend more time with family and will end a career in public service that also included a stint as the state’s lieutenant governor under former Gov. Mark Dayton.
Dayton appointed Smith to the Senate in 2018, following the resignation of former U.S. Sen. Al Franken, and she won both a special election later that year, and then a six-year term with a 2020 victory over Republican Jason Lewis.
But with 2026 and another election approaching, Smith said is opting out of politics.
Trump administration gives schools a deadline
to end DEI programs or risk losing federal money 4 replies
to end DEI programs or risk losing federal money 4 replies
The Trump administration is giving America’s schools and universities two weeks to eliminate diversity initiatives or risk losing federal money, raising the stakes in the president’s fight against “ wokeness.”
In a memo Friday, the Education Department gave an ultimatum to stop using “racial preferences” as a factor in admissions, financial aid, hiring or other areas. Schools are being given 14 days to end any practice that treats students or workers differently because of their race. (snip)Practices that have long been commonplace could become legal liabilities, including recruiting in underrepresented areas or buying lists of potential students with certain academic and demographic information,
Signatures can be gathered for 2026 repeal
vote on Alaska voting system, lieutenant
governor says 5 replies
vote on Alaska voting system, lieutenant
governor says 5 replies
Less than four months after Alaska voters rejected a ballot measure to repeal Alaska’s ranked choice voting and open primary system, the state’s lieutenant governor has OK’d a new petition-gathering effort to repeal the system. Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom announced on Monday that she had approved certifying that the proposed ballot measure was in the proper form. This allows the sponsors to begin gathering signatures. They will need to collect at least 34,099 signatures of registered voters, (snip)to place the measure on the ballot in 2026. The 2024 ballot measure to repeal the voting system lost by a narrow margin — just 737 votes of 320,985 ballots cast.
Kemi Badenoch has said the chicken nugget immigration case shows how migrants are weaponising the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to avoided deportation.
The Conservative leader told the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship conference in London that Western civilisation had been “hacked” in recent decades because of “loopholes in liberalism”, including in the ECHR. Speaking on Monday, Mrs Badenoch said: “The current system is being exploited. The public are enraged at the perception that the UK has become a haven for foreign criminals.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, during a closed-door meeting on Wednesday, rejected an offer by the Trump administration to relinquish half of the country’s mineral resources in exchange for U.S. support, according to five people briefed on the proposal or with direct knowledge of the talks.
The unusual deal would have granted the United States a 50 percent interest in all of Ukraine’s mineral resources, including graphite, lithium and uranium, as compensation for past and future support in Kyiv’s war effort against Russian invaders, according to two European officials. A Ukrainian official and an energy expert briefed on the proposal said that the Trump administration also sought Ukrainian energy resources.
The Gaza strip is still home to “hundreds of miles” of Hamas terror tunnels — and it could take years to eliminate them and vanquish the terrorist organization, Israel’s consul-general revealed to The Post. “It will take time,” Ofir Akunis said during a sitdown this week. “We can stop [the war] after Hamas is not there — maybe it will take another year or two years.”
“It took six years, six years for the Western world, to defeat Germany,’ Akunis noted. Should hostilities resume, the war would “look different” than the last 15 months of fighting, Akunis said, declining to elaborate.
Hundreds of people have been charged with online “speech crimes” amid claims from the Trump administration that civil liberties are under threat in Britain.
Almost 300 people have been charged with spreading illegal “fake news” or sending “threatening communications” since the Online Safety Act came into force in 2023. Dozens have received convictions under the act.
Multiple people were charged under the law following last summer’s rioting in the wake of the Southport stabbings.
The UK military is "so run down" it could not lead any future peacekeeping mission in Ukraine, the former head of the army has said.
Lord Dannatt told the BBC that up to 40,000 UK troops would be needed for such a mission and "we just haven't got that number available". It comes after prime minister Keir Starmer said the UK would "play its part" in guaranteeing Ukraine's security after he was asked this week if he was open to sending British troops as peacekeepers. A former Nato chief told the BBC that Britain and France should lead a force of up to 100,000 troops as part of a long-term peacekeeping
Brendan Carr, chair of the Federal Communications Commission, has asked his agency to launch an investigation into Comcast’s DEI policies — setting off alarm bells for other media conglomerates with diversity programs. On Tuesday, Carr warned Comcast CEO Brian Roberts that the FCC will be looking into whether the cable giant — which owns NBCUniversal — is breaking federal law, specifically the Equal Employment Opportunity Act, by running DEI programs, according to a letter obtained by The Post.
“Every single business that’s regulated by the FCC … I trust that they have now got the message that the time to end their invidious forms of DEI discrimination is now,”
An Arizona woman who created a "laptop farm" in her home to help fake IT workers pose as US-based employees has pleaded guilty in a scheme that generated over $17 million for herself... and North Korea. Christina Marie Chapman pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and conspiracy to launder monetary instruments in a US District Court on Tuesday.
Some of the overseas workers were hired at Fortune 500 companies, including a top-five television network, a premier Silicon Valley technology company, an aerospace and defense manufacturer, an American car manufacturer, a luxury retail chain, and a US-hallmark media and entertainment company.
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MSNBC host Rachel Maddow said Monday on “The Rachel Maddow Show” that her network made a “bad mistake” firing host Joy Reid.
Maddow said, “Joy Reid’s show, the ReidOut ended tonight, and Joy is not taking a different job in the network. She is leaving the network altogether and that is very, very, very hard to take. I am 51 years old. I have been gainfully employed since I was 12 and I have had so many different kinds of jobs, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you. But in all of the jobs I have had in all of the years I have been alive,
A senior Hamas official told the New York Times last week that he would not have supported the October 7, 2023, terror attack against Israel if he had known the outcome — the destruction of Hamas and the devastation of Gaza.
The Times reported Monday:
Mousa Abu Marzouk, the Qatar-based head of Hamas’s foreign relations office, said in an interview with The New York Times that he would not have supported the attack if he had known of the havoc it would wreak on Gaza. Knowing of the consequences, he said, would have made it “impossible” for him to back the assault
Buttigieg weighs a decision with huge
implications for Democrats: Run for Senate
or president? 27 replies
implications for Democrats: Run for Senate
or president? 27 replies
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — Some believe the Democratic Party’s next savior is living here, huddled with family, in the relative obscurity of a small city on the shores of Lake Michigan. Pete Buttigieg has yet to decide if that’s a responsibility he wants. For now, Buttigieg, the 43-year-old former U.S. transportation secretary, is discussing his future with party officials, labor leaders and top strategists. He must decide soon whether he wants to return to the national spotlight as a candidate in Michigan’s U.S. Senate race or step aside to instead seek a much bigger role as his party’s next presidential
Washington—More than 20 civil service employees resigned Tuesday from billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, saying they were refusing to use their technical expertise to “dismantle critical public services.”
“We swore to serve the American people and uphold our oath to the Constitution across presidential administrations,” the 21 staffers wrote in a joint resignation letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press. “However, it has become clear that we can no longer honor those commitments.”
The employees also warned that many of those enlisted by Musk to help him slash the size of the federal government under President Donald Trump’s administration were political ideologues who
DOGE chief Elon Musk teased Monday that federal workers may receive a second email asking them to list their weekly accomplishments – and that failure to respond to it will result in “termination.”
The Tesla and SpaceX founder’s warning came hours after the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) notified human resource bosses across multiple agencies that responses to emails sent Saturday –demanding a list of five bullet points detailing what federal workers achieved in the previous five working days — were “voluntary” and that failure to respond would not be taken as a resignation, as Musk had claimed. (Photo) “The email request was utterly trivial, as the standard
DOGE workers are revolting against Elon Musk and Donald Trump by signing a dramatic resignation letter vowing not to defund 'public services.' 'We swore to serve the American people and uphold our oath to the Constitution across presidential administrations,' 21 former DOGE staffers wrote in a letter first reported on by AP. These ex-DOGE workers, who are not part of Musk's personally hired nerd army, said that they refuse to 'dismantle critical public services' being slashed.
RIP, Joy Reid
17 replies
Thus passes the glory of America’s vaunted voice of cable news moderation. Soon-to-be former MSNBC host Joy Reid, otherwise known as Joy Anne Weave, broke down on a Zoom call Monday after her show, “The ReidOut,” was canceled by the struggling liberal network. In one of her final tear-soaked diatribes, before her show is officially dead and gone, she congratulated herself on her steadfast bravery and pretended as if her abysmal ratings did not exist.
A data scientist with ties to DOGE chief Elon Musk declared Monday that she believes “over $100 billion” in taxpayer dollars are being wasted or stolen by federal employees at government agencies.
The tech expert is using artificial intelligence to expose cases of government waste, fraud and abuse and goes by “DataRepublican” on X, where her posts are regularly shared by billionaire Tesla and SpaceX founder.
“Whew,” the woman, who is deaf, said through an interpreter when asked by NewsNation’s Brian Entin about how much federal cash she believes is being wasted or stolen based on her efforts poring over public databases.
In an angry letter addressed last week to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, disgraced Fulton County DA Fani Willis wailed about the congressional committee purportedly "bully[ing]" her by investigating the affairs of her office. She suggested that he should be celebrating Black History Month instead.
"Rather than honor and uphold the oath you took, you have chosen to expend your time attempting to bully me, which is a complete waste of your time," Willis wrote, according to a copy of the correspondence obtained by The New York Times. "Might I suggest that instead of attempting to disrupt this office's work protecting the people of Fulton County,
The White House announced Tuesday it would “give the power back to the people,” but the establishment media want it back.
Fox News Senior White House Correspondent Jacqui Heinrich took to social media Tuesday to protest a White House announcement that the White House would open up access to the press pool covering President Donald Trump and his administration.“For decades, a group of DC-based journalists, the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA), has long dictated which journalists get to ask questions of the president of the United States in these most intimate spaces,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday. “Not anymore.”
Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Tuesday and called on lawmakers not to give President Donald Trump their authority.
Co-host Jonathan Lemire said, “Certainly there’s a lot of debate among Democrats right now as to who is that face, who is the leader for the party right now? Who’s going to play the role that Nancy Pelosi did during those first couple of years of Trump’s initial term in office? So now let’s take a look at more from Ryan Noble’s interview with Senator Murkowski, who warned her Republican colleagues not to cede their authority to President Trump.”
Top Dem senator accused of unsavory nonprofit
activity that enriched his wife, watchdog claims 13 replies
activity that enriched his wife, watchdog claims 13 replies
Sierra Marlee
Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT), an ethics watchdog, is asking for an investigation into a Democrat senator.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island, is being accused of violating ethics rules after reportedly backing legislation that helped enrich his own wife. FACT is asking the Senate Select Committee on Ethics to look into whether Sandra Whitehouse’s environmental organization financially benefitted from her husband’s political positions, and “whether he violated the Senate ethics rules on conflicts of interest.”
Mrs. Whitehouse has worked for consulting firm Ocean Wonks LLC as the president since 2017, prior to which she was a Senior Policy Adviser at Ocean Conservancy starting in 2008.