Paul Fleury

15 hrs

Republicans want to keep SNAP users from buying soda: A social safety net like SNAP (food stamps) should be about providing the basic necessities to those who might not have enough to eat otherwise. Most Americans can agree that no one in the U.S. should die because they don't have enough food and water. The debate comes over whether SNAP recipients should be able to use taxpayer funds to purchase Coca-Cola at the supermarket. Several conservative influencers on X were caught taking money from Big Soda to fight Republican legislation in Congress that will keep SNAP users from doing just that. Whether either of the two proposed bills will ever pass Congress is unclear, but it's hard to imagine why a conservative would oppose them. Well, other than money.

Headlines
USPS leader Louis DeJoy resigns as Postmaster General (Just the News)

Social Security conducting records cleanup, marking seven million listed age 120+ as deceased (Fox Business)

Justice Department signals support for firearm suppressors (Washington Examiner)

Columbia's interim president privately told faculty there was no mask ban — despite telling Trump admin it would be enforced (NY Post)

Just six of 2,000 homes have been rebuilt since the 2023 Hawaii wildfires (National Review)

Humor: "Snow White" beaten at box office by middle school recorder recital (Babylon Bee)

15 hrs

Why was the U.S. funding Australian universities? The Trump administration has pulled $600 million in U.S. taxpayer funding from seven universities in Australia. In response, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was urged to call an "emergency meeting" of the National Science and Technology Council. The Trump administration sent a questionnaire asking the universities if they could justify U.S. funding, whether they had also received funding from China, and whether they recognized only two sexes or embraced DEI. The response from Australia was mind-numbingly dumb. National Tertiary Education Union President Alison Barnes stated, "The [Aussie] federal government must push back on the Trump administration's blatant foreign interference in our independent research in the strongest possible terms." Wait — whose money was it in the first place?

15 hrs

Trump announces tariffs to isolate Venezuela: "Therefore, any Country that purchases Oil and/or Gas from Venezuela will be forced to pay a Tariff of 25% to the United States on any Trade they do with our Country," Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social Monday. This comes in response to Venezuela's deliberate effort to send criminals and destabilizing immigrants to the U.S., including members of the violent gang Tren de Aragua. Venezuela's crude oil exports go primarily to China, Brazil, Turkey, and others. Trump's stated goal is to isolate the hostile regime in Venezuela and force greater investment in the U.S. economy. The new tariffs will take effect on April 2.

15 hrs

Trump repatriates investment billions: The Trump Difference has many manifestations, not least of which is the confidence his presence in the White House inspires both in corporate America and around the world at large. This confidence, in turn, takes the form of business investment — from companies such as Apple ($500 billion), Johnson & Johnson ($55 billion over four years), Japan-based SoftBank ($100 billion over four years), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing ($165 billion), and the United Arab Emirates (a whopping $1.4 trillion over four years). All this in just two months. Suffice it to say, the hyper-regulatory Biden administration fostered far less enthusiasm among the world's great companies — some $910 billion in private manufacturing investments over its four-year term.

15 hrs

Trump plans to pardon former Biden pal Devon Archer: A former business associate of the Biden Crime Family might seem an odd choice for a presidential pardon, but Devon Archer is no longer a friend of the family. Archer's congressional testimony in 2023 about his business dealings with the Bidens helped solidify the evidence of their corruption. Now, "He's getting a full pardon," Trump told the New York Post's Miranda Devine. "He was screwed by the Bidens. They destroyed him like they tried to destroy a lot of people." The pardon would relieve Archer of potential prison time for securities fraud over his involvement in a 2015 deal with Hunter Biden. Joe Biden, of course, has already pardoned his wastrel son for anything he might've done in the past decade or so.