Two weeks after Vice President JD Vance schooled CBS News‘ Margaret Brennan over illegal immigration, with his “I don’t really care, Margaret” mic-drop, Brennan floated an absurd argument on Sunday to get back at Vance – suggesting to Secretary of State Marco Rubio that Hitler ‘weaponized’ free speech to commit the holocaust, after Vance chastised ‘horrified‘ European leaders over censorship while speaking from Germany.

“He [Vance] was standing in a country where free speech was weaponized to conduct a genocide, and he met with the head of a political party that has far-right views and some historic ties to extreme groups. The context of that was changing the tone of it. And you know that, that the censorship was specifically about the right,” Brennan said.

Rubio didn’t let the remark stand, replying: “Well, I have to disagree with you. Free speech was not used to conduct a genocide. The genocide was conducted by an authoritarian Nazi regime that happened to also be genocidal … There was no free speech in Nazi Germany. There was none. There was also no opposition in Nazi Germany. They were a sole and only party that governed that country. So that’s not an accurate reflection of history.”

Watch:

Utterly bizarre assertion from Margaret Brennan. She claims the Nazi Holocaust occurred because “free speech was weaponized” in Germany, thus making Vance’s comments all the more worrisome. Recasting the Holocaust as a consequence of excessive free speech is just totally bonkers pic.twitter.com/2vefGlzT6s

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) February 16, 2025

Last week, Vance slammed European leaders for allowing mass migration and extreme laws censoring free speech – remarking that he worries more about Europe’s  “threats from within” than from external threats like Russia and China.

“While the Trump administration is very concerned with European security and believes we can come to a reasonable settlement between Russia and Ukraine … the threat that I worry the most about vis-à-vis Europe is not Russia, it’s not China, it’s not any other external actor,” said Vance.

“What I worry about is the threat from within – the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values, values shared with the United States of America.”

Vice President JD Vance says there is “no room for firewalls” in Munich ahead of German elections where political parties have vowed to not work with AfD even though millions will vote for the anti-immigration party.pic.twitter.com/tJ44bTyaCz

— The American Conservative (@amconmag) February 14, 2025

And now the left is trying to equate free speech to Nazi authoritarianism. 

One of the first things Hitler did upon gaining power was apply aggressive censorship

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 16, 2025

Just insane logic here. There was no free speech in Nazi Germany. I guess she missed that part of history class in high school.

They hire intellectual nit wits for these MSM acting jobs and it shows. https://t.co/1K4tGdZBvg

— Edward Dowd (@DowdEdward) February 16, 2025

Do they hear themselves speak?

“We don’t really care, Margaret!!”

*  *  *

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Authored by Kimberly Hayek via The Epoch Times,

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has indicated he will veto a bill that seeks to prevent the California state prison system from working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) if the bill passes the Legislature.

If passed, Assembly Bill 15 (AB 15), introduced by Assembly Member Mike Gipson (D-District 65) who represents parts of south-central Los Angeles, would prevent the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) from cooperating with ICE.

The CDCR would be prohibited from holding someone in custody at the request of ICE, sharing an individual’s release date with ICE, responding to ICE requests for information, or transferring individuals to ICE custody.

“The Governor has twice vetoed versions of this bill before,” Newsom’s office said in a statement emailed to The Epoch Times.

California law currently allows CDCR to notify and coordinate with ICE to take custody of illegal immigrants who have come to the end of their state prison term for felony offenses.

The governor’s office shared statistics that the state prison system has notified and coordinated with ICE the transfer of 10,588 state inmates, including illegal aliens who have committed serious crimes. Those crimes include assault and battery, threats, rape, theft, fraud, felony DUI, drug crimes and more.

Newsom has previously vetoed Assembly Bill 1306 in 2023 and another version, Assembly Bill 1282, in 2019.

“His position has been long-held since he was mayor of San Francisco,” the governor’s office stated.

AB 1306 would have prohibited the CDCR from detaining inmates on the basis of a hold request, sharing with ICE release date information, responding to a notification request, transferring to ICE, or facilitating a transfer request for any individual eligible for release, including but not limited to youth offenders, elderly, and medical parole releases.

“The bill would prevent information sharing and coordination upon a person’s release from CDCR custody for a significant number of people and, as a result, would impede CDCR’s interaction with a federal law enforcement agency charged with assessing public safety risks,” Newsom stated at the time of his veto.

“I believe current law strikes the right balance on limiting interaction to support community trust and cooperation between law enforcement and local communities.”

Newsom did say that his administration recognizes the need for improvements.

“CDCR will limit how it communicates with ICE as a federal law enforcement agency, so information is only provided to ICE when a noncitizen individual enters prison and is approaching their release date,” Newsom wrote in the 2023 veto. “ICE would then determine how it proceeds with its enforcement of federal law.”

Assembly Bill 1282 sought to prohibit ICE representatives from arresting, detaining, interrogating, transporting, or taking into custody an individual for immigration enforcement purposes

Newsom also vetoed that bill.

“This bill would place statutory restrictions on the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s ability to transfer inmates between state prisons and prohibit the Department from allowing a private security company to enter the premises for immigration enforcement purposes,” he wrote in 2019.

“I am concerned that provisions in this bill would negatively impact prison operations, and could hinder and delay needed transfers between facilities for myriad situation-specific reasons such as medical care and court obligations.”

Assembly Bill 15, initially introduced in December 2024, remains in committee. The next step would be for the bill to be brought to the floor of the House for consideration.

The Epoch Times reached out to Gipson and the bill’s cosponsors for comment but no response was received by publication time.

Two far-left groups organized nationwide Tesla protests on Saturday, but turnout was dismal.

These leftist groups have become a joke, as their days of using taxpayer funds to “rent-a-protester” through shady Marxist NGOs are over in the era of President Trump and Elon Musk’s DOGE busting USAID. 

“Tesla Takedown” was sponsored by two shady groups, the first called “Disruption Project,” and the second called “TroubleMakers.” Their protest was hosted on the far-left Action Network.

“This Saturday, we hit Tesla showrooms everywhere,” the protest organizers stated on Action Network. 

They instructed their protest warriors—who likely experienced a bad case of ‘TDS’—to “sell your Teslas, dump your stock, join the picket lines.” 

These groups even gave marching orders to their foot soldiers: “Hurting Tesla is stopping Musk.” 

So, advocating to harm an American company, huh? That’s hardly “America First.” Trump administration officials should investigate whether these groups are receiving taxpayer money or foreign funding. 

They continued, “Stopping Musk will help save lives and our democracy.” 

We learned days ago that the Deep State’s definition of “democracy” isn’t what it seems. They mean that Trump and Musk are threats to their shadow government, which operates through seven NGOs. 

These NGOs were revealed in a report from DataRepublican titled: THE UNIPARTY UNMASKED – They Believe They Are “Democracy” (excerpt of report):

… 

Originally, these NGOs were created to support U.S. democratic efforts abroad—many of them emerging during the Cold War to combat the spread of communism. But with the fall of the Soviet Union, their original purpose faded. Instead of dissolving, they redefined their mission. Now, they have positioned themselves as the guardians of democracy itself.

This shift explains why Trump’s re-election was framed as a “threat to democracy.” To these NGOs, “democracy” means themselves. Their survival depends on maintaining that role, and any challenge to their authority is perceived as a direct attack on democracy itself.

So again, there’s nothing organic about the Tesla Takedown protest – it’s merely far-left Marxists waging war on an American company to pressure Musk’s efforts to stop him and DOGE from uncovering the fraud and corruption in the DC Swamp. But this time around, NGO monies appear to be drying up after the busting of USAID…

BREAKING: Droves of @elonmusk protesters (at least 5) braving the weather at the Tesla store in Loveland Colorado. The least I could do was honk lol https://t.co/qIlo0WEjcj pic.twitter.com/wo5j0X1d8Y

— Spotted Model: Cars & Tech (@spotted_model) February 15, 2025

Most people have no idea who the CEO of a company is. VW was started by Hitler. These protests are the lamest thing, especially the ones pestering employees who are trying to make a living.

Thankfully none of them at Santana Row. Tesla employees are working ruthlessly to make… pic.twitter.com/AgvDIxJjun

— Tesla Owners Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV) February 16, 2025

Oh shit. Little @elonmusk protest at the Tesla store in the Austin, TX. 😂 pic.twitter.com/HSdgE3xwMN

— Dylan Fonseca ⚔️ (@TDylanfonseca) February 15, 2025

Absolute unit. pic.twitter.com/jsC8YijFy3

— Bojac (@HeartlessBojac) February 15, 2025

Where did all the professional protesters go?

One of the biggest questions over the past 50 years is whether the gold at Fort Knox, Kentucky is really there, or if it’s been plundered.

What we do know is that the last ‘audit’ of America’s gold stash was conducted on Sept. 23, 1974, when the US Treasury opened just one of its 15 vaults at Fort Knox so politicians and reporters could swarm the site for a two-hour photo-op with roughly 6% of the alleged amount held. Adding to the complete farce, none of the bars being passed around for the cameras were matched to a serial number, assayed or tested for purity, or even verified as US holdings – as foreign countries have previously stored their gold at Fort Knox as well.

Since then there has been no independent verification of the roughly 4,580 metric tons supposedly held by the Treasury outside of bullshit annual ‘vault seal checks’ that don’t actually analyze the gold (oh, and they’ve ‘lost‘ seven of those) – various efforts have been raised to audit Fort Knox – most recently in 2021, when Rep. Alex Mooney (R-WV) introduced (now-dead) legislation to audit America’s gold holdings with a full assay, inventory, and audit of all US gold – which would include a full account of gold transactions undertaken by the US government. 

In 2010, former Libertarian Rep. Ron Paul called for an independent audit of Fort Knox.

“It’d be nice for the American people to know whether or not the gold is there,” Paul said at the time.

Activate Agent Big Balls

With Elon Musk’s team at DOGE – including a gent who goes by the name “Big Balls” – investigating government-wide waste, fraud and abuse, we thought it might be helpful to point them towards Fort Knox…

Surely it’s reviewed at least every year?

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 15, 2025

The suggestion immediately went viral on X, with Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) indicating he’s on board – replying to Musk with “Let’s do it.”

Nope. Let’s do it. https://t.co/4sgVpaCwwz

— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) February 16, 2025

Musk and team need to get to the bottom of just how deep the rot goes…

By whom? The same people you’re auditing now?

— Jeff Carlson (@themarketswork) February 15, 2025

Throwback to @RonPaul talking about the gold in Fort Knox: pic.twitter.com/5xiAQItOjk

— Natalie F Danelishen (@Chesschick01) February 16, 2025

The Bank of England should also be audited. They’ve been caught holding fake gold bars with duplicate serial numbers in the past. If one central bank is holding dodgy gold, how many others are?

The sad thing is that the RBA, knowing this still refuses to take Australias gold… pic.twitter.com/YCNOnq7nfM

— Senator Gerard Rennick (@SenatorRennick) February 16, 2025

*  *  *

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Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

CNN activist White House correspondent ‘reporter’ Kaitlin Collins is facing calls for her firing after she posted a link to the defense fund of Luigi Mangione, the guy charged with shooting and killing UnitedHealthcare CEO, Brian Thompson.

Collins posted the link to X on Friday but then deleted it shortly after following swift backlash.

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins deletes post promoting Luigi Mangione’s defense fund after backlash https://t.co/rq14XVxR9S pic.twitter.com/73B62QQe3G

— New York Post (@nypost) February 16, 2025

Mangione has been lauded by extremist leftists and also held up as a kind of sick sex symbol by deranged liberal women. 

If she really promoted that @cnn should fire her. I’m skeptical she did that because it would be something so irresponsible and egregious for an intelligent news anchor to do. But if true this is horrible of her and reflects very badly on her employer if left unaddressed.

— Popz Boltz ⚡️ (@PopzBoltz) February 16, 2025

she forgot to switch to her alt

— Jessica Montgomery (@jessicanolanova) February 16, 2025

Collins has access to the White House as part of the press corps.

Kaitlan Collins needs her press pass revoked and to be fired from CNN

— Danny🇺🇸 (@Fivixz) February 16, 2025

She can also get on board Air Force One.

Pull her access to Oval Office & Air Force 1 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

— 🇺🇸 CHLOE 🇺🇸 (@Chloe4Djt) February 16, 2025

These are the kind of lunatics running the leftist legacy media.

She has no business being called a journalist. She’s a left leaning Activist masquerading as one. She doesn’t deliver objective news. She’s been nothing but rude to Pres. Trump, going back to his 1st term. She doesn’t try to hide her disdain for him. It’s utterly disrespectful!

— Elizabeth Kurpiel (@bethk68) February 16, 2025

Collins has clearly been broken by Trump who told her last week “we haven’t asked you to speak yet.”

LMAOO

KAITLAN COLLINS: Mr. President, you won the White House, in part because of high inflation. If your tariffs make prices go up…

TRUMP: Excuse me, we haven’t asked you to speak yet, please.pic.twitter.com/mYWgQQihCs

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) February 13, 2025

She is also big made about Trump hanging his own mugshot outside the Oval Office as a fuck you to those who attempted to destroy him.

Kaitlan Collins of CNN is mad that President Trump is proudly presenting his mugshot outside the Oval Office.

He keeps it on prominent display in order to remind people of lawfare Democrats engaged in against him to cheat in the election.

Collins can’t handle facing reality. pic.twitter.com/wfWs4iIenP

— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) February 14, 2025

The meltdon from the left is so good. They have no idea

— Cash Loren (@CashLorenShow) February 15, 2025

Apparently Ms. Collins doesn’t understand he is clowning them for their failed political warfare agenda.

— 👮‍♂️The Badged Patriot👮‍♂️ (@Badged_Patriot) February 15, 2025

Excuse me, we haven’t asked you to speak yet, thank you.

— Vince Lyle (@VinceLyle2161) February 15, 2025

*  *  *

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

Update (1250ET): Milei may now face the risk of impeachment after Argentina’s fintech chamber acknowledged that the case may be a rug pull.

“This scandal, which embarrasses us on an international scale, requires us to launch an impeachment request against the president,” opposition lawmaker Leandro Santoro told Reuters, according to a Feb. 16 report.

Milei has requested the Anti-Corruption Office to investigate all government members, including the president himself, for potential misconduct, according to a Feb. 16 X statement issued by Argentina’s presidential office, Oficina del Presidente.

The statement also revealed that Milei held a meeting with KIP Protocol representatives on Oct. 19, 2024, in Argentina, where the company informed him about the Libra blockchain project and its aims to finance private ventures in the country.

Statement Argentina’s Presidential Office. Source: Oficina del Presidente

Milei also met with mysterious crypto entrepreneur Hayden Mark Davis at Casa Rosada on Jan. 30, who was presented to the president as an infrastructure partner for the project.

“All information gathered during the investigation will be handed over to the courts to determine whether any of the companies or individuals linked to the KIP Protocol project committed a crime,” added the statement.

* * *

As Zoltan Vardai detailed earlier, via CoinTelegraph.com, the launch of Libra (LIBRA), a cryptocurrency endorsed by  Argentine President Javier Milei, turned into a financial catastrophe after insiders cashed out over $107 million, wiping out nearly 94% of the token’s value within hours.

According to onchain intelligence firm Lookonchain, at least eight wallets linked to the Libra team siphoned liquidity from the token, pocketing 57.6 million USD Coin and 249,671 Solana worth $49.7 million:

“The $LIBRA team has cashed out $107M! 8 wallets related to the $LIBRA team have obtained 57.6M $USDC and 249,671 $SOL($49.7M) by adding liquidity, removing liquidity and claiming fees.”

Libra insider wallets. Source: Lookonchain

The Libra token briefly rose to a peak market capitalization of $4.56 billion at 10:30 pm UTC on Feb. 14 before falling over 94% to the current $257 million market cap in just 11 hours since the token debuted for trading on decentralized exchanges, Dexscreener data shows.

LIBRA/USDC, all-time chart. Source: Dexscreener

The token’s rally began shortly after a now-deleted X post from President Milei, which shared a website and token contract address for Libra, which was a “private project” dedicated to “encourage the growth of the Argentine economy.”

Milei’s deleted X post. Source: Kobeissi Letter

After the token’s collapse, Milei deleted his endorsement, later issuing a statement on X blaming political opponents:

“To the filthy rats of the political caste who want to take advantage of this situation to do harm, I want to say that every day they confirm how vile politicians are, and they increase our conviction to kick them in the ass.”

Milei’s apology. Source: Javier Milei

Retail investor appetite for celebrity-endorsed memecoins has been boosted since US President Donald Trump launched his Official Trump (TRUMP) memecoin on Jan. 18, followed by First Lady Melania Trump’s Melania Meme (MELANIA) token on Jan. 19 on the Solana network ahead of his inauguration on Jan. 20.

LIBRA erases over $4 billion from market cap after insider selling

Insider wallets started cashing out on the token only three hours after it debuted for trading, causing its over 94% decline, according to data shared by the Kobeissi Letter.

Source: Kobeissi Letter

Other blockchain data firms have warned about the project’s tokenomics even before the meltdown. Blockchain analysis firm Bubblemaps had warned about LIBRA’s flawed tokenomics, revealing that 82% of the supply was unlocked and sellable from the start.

Libra token clusters. Source: Bubblemaps

Moreover, the project shared no preliminary information about its tokenomics, a major red flag among crypto traders.

Yet, some of the savviest crypto traders can successfully navigate through the volatility of memecoins despite their intrinsic lack of utility.

On Feb. 14, a savvy crypto “sniper” made $28 million in profit after buying the latest “Broccoli” memecoins inspired by Binance co-founder Changpenz Zhao’s dog. However, speculation has arisen that the trader may have been an insider wallet.

Europe will not be included in peace talks for Ukraine, President Donald Trump’s Ukraine envoy said on Feb. 15 after sending a questionnaire to European capitals asking what they could offer in security guarantees for Kyiv.

As The Epoch Times’ Jacob Burg reports, on Sunday, France said it will host a summit of European leaders on Monday to discuss the Russia–Ukraine war and European security after retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, didn’t include Europe in negotiations over Ukraine’s future following years of war with Russia.

France President Emmanuel Macron “will convene the main European countries to discuss European security,” Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told France Inter radio. Barrot described the meeting as a working session and emphasized it should not be “overdramatized.”

The office of the French presidency has not yet announced the meeting.

Macron has invited at least Britain, Germany, Poland, Italy, and Denmark, representing the Baltic and Scandinavian countries, the European Union leadership, and the NATO secretary general, according to six European diplomats. They said the purpose of the meeting is to discuss what immediate help can be given to Ukraine and the role Europe can play in providing both security guarantees to Kyiv and Europe at large.

Trump called Russian President Vladimir Putin last week before consulting European or Ukrainian leaders, saying peace talks had begun.

The Trump administration is pushing European allies in NATO to take a primary role in security guarantees for the region as the United States prioritizes border security and counters Chinese political and military influence.

At a global security conference in Munich, Kellogg said the United States would act as an intermediary in talks between Ukraine and Russia.

“I’m [from] a school of realism,” Kellogg said, regarding Europe having a seat at the table during negotiations. 

“I think that’s not going to happen.”

In trying to reassure Europeans, Kellogg said it doesn’t mean “their interests are not considered, used, or developed.”

Some European leaders pushed back on being sidelined for talks.

“There’s no way in which we can have discussions or negotiations about Ukraine, Ukraine’s future or European security structure, without Europeans,” Finland’s President Alexander Stubb told reporters in Munich.

“But this means that Europe needs to get its act together. Europe needs to talk less and do more.”

The questionnaire Kellogg sent to Europeans “will force Europeans to think,” Stubb said.

Kaja Kallas, the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission, was more explicit stating that “if somebody agrees something and I mean, everybody else says ‘okay fine!’ you have agreed, but we will not follow this!”

She added that EU’s position is “our importance” trumps any peace!

🇪🇺🇺🇸🇺🇦🚨‼️ THE EU OPENLY SAYS THEY WILL SABOTAGE PEACE IN UKRAINE IF THEY’RE NOT AT THE TABLE.

Kallas: “if somebody agrees something and I mean, everybody else says ‘okay fine!’ you have agreed,but we will not follow this!”

-> EU’s position is “our importance” trumps any peace! pic.twitter.com/CMsYIpi6Q6

— Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) February 16, 2025

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte urged Europeans to get involved.

“And to my European friends, I would say, get into the debate, not by complaining that you might, yes or no, be at the table, but by coming up with concrete proposals, ideas, ramp up [defense] spending,” he said.

Kellogg said that territorial concessions from Russia and targeting its oil revenues could be included in the talks over ending the war between it and Ukraine.

“Russia is really a petro-state,” he said, adding that the West needs to do more in adequately enforcing sanctions against Russia.

U.S. and Russian officials will meet in Saudi Arabia in the coming days for continued peace talks, according to Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas). After meeting with Vice President JD Vance in Germany on Feb. 14, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his nation was not invited to the talks in Saudi Arabia and that Kyiv would consult with strategic partners before engaging with Russia.

“This is the war in Ukraine against us, and it is our human losses,” President Zelensky told Meet The Press this morning.

“We are thankful for all the support, unity in the USA around Ukraine support, bipartisan unity, bipartisan support,” adding that “we are thankful for all of this, but there is no leader in the world who can really make a deal with Putin without us, about us.”

🚨🇺🇦 ZELENSKY: I WOULD NEVER ACCEPT ANY DECISIONS BETWEEN THE U.S. AND RUSSIA ABOUT UKRAINE

“This is the war in Ukraine against us, and it is our human losses.

We are thankful for all the support, unity in the USA around Ukraine support, bipartisan unity, bipartisan support.… pic.twitter.com/a8F2MaLl3J

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) February 16, 2025

“I will never accept any decisions between the United States and Russia about Ukraine. Never,” he exclaimed.

Trump told Zelensky that he believes Putin is serious about peace talks. So Zelensky’s strategy to undermine those talks is tell Trump that Putin is not serious and is really just “afraid” of Trump.

You can tell by this desperate reverse psychology, and his body language, that… https://t.co/jpCPlIzB0U

— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) February 16, 2025

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, and White House Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Saudi Arabia, McCaul said.

The talks are meant to arrange a meeting between Trump, Putin, and Zelensky to “finally bring peace and end this conflict,” he said.

House Republicans are drafting articles of impeachment against Democrat judges that have blocked various actions by the Trump administration, including those who have halted efforts by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

According to The Hill:

Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.) said he is drafting articles of impeachment against Judge Paul Engelmayer of the Southern District of New York, who in a ruling last weekend temporarily restricted Musk and DOGE aides from accessing a Treasury Department payment system.

Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) is working on an impeachment resolution against Rhode Island District Judge John McConnell Jr. over his ruling halting the Trump administration’s freeze on federal funding.

And Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), chair of the House Oversight Delivering on Government Efficiency Subcommittee, pledged in a hearing this week while referencing Engelmayer that “We will hold this judge and others who try to stop the will of the people and their elected leaders accountable.”

“Our case for impeaching Judge Engelmayer is basically that he’s an activist judge trying to stop the Trump administration from, you know, executing their, you know, Article 2 powers to make sure that the laws are faithfully executed,” Crane told former Rep. Matt Gaetz earlier this week.

Greene, meanwhile, said that she would support Engelmayer’s impeachment – arguing that judges can’t simply take power away from Cabinet secretaries.

“They can’t do that, especially when they have a serious record of Democrat activism and being hardcore against President Trump,” said Greene, adding “So, yeah, judges like that, they definitely should be impeached.”

On Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that “district court judges in liberal districts across the country are abusing their power to unilaterally block President Trump’s basic executive authority.“

Engelmayer initially blocked everyone at the Treasury Department – including Secretary Scott Bessent, from accessing the agency’s database, however another judge overseeing the case later said that the order would not apply to Bessent.

Rep. Clyde announced that he was working on impeachment articles, saying in a post on X that Judge McConnell Jr. is “a partisan activist weaponizing our judicial system to stop President Trump’s funding freeze on woke and wasteful government spending.”

I’m drafting articles of impeachment for U.S. District Judge John McConnell Jr.

He’s a partisan activist weaponizing our judicial system to stop President Trump’s funding freeze on woke and wasteful government spending.

We must end this abusive overreach. Stay tuned. https://t.co/ARp7KBjK9u

— Rep. Andrew Clyde (@Rep_Clyde) February 12, 2025

It would take near-unanimous support from House Republicans to impeach one of the judges assuming no Democrats support the measure, while Democrat support would definitely be required to clear the 2/3 threshold to convict in the Senate.

So basically, this is going nowhere.

“Up till last Congress, the Speaker of the House had never been fired before,” said Crane. “I’m not a wait-and-see kind of guy — look around, hope somebody’s going to do something. I’m going to take action. And like I said, If this isn’t how we get to the, you know, the place that we need to be, I’m fine with that. But I’m not going to sit around and just, you know, watch these individuals stop President Trump from doing exactly what he told the American people he was going to do.”

*  *  *

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Via The Daily Signal, a publication of The Heritage Foundation,

Key Points:

• Germany’s energy policies have led to electricity costs that are four times higher than in the U.S.

• The country’s industrial sector, especially the auto industry, is suffering due to high energy costs and green regulations.

• Germany’s military has been significantly reduced, with only 180,000 active soldiers and minimal military assets.

• The country’s fertility rate is dangerously low, and immigration policies have led to a large foreign-born population.

• Germany’s self-inflicted decline mirrors the Morgenthau Plan’s intended de-industrialization and depopulation of post-WWII Germany.

Hi, I’m Victor Davis Hanson, today I’d like to talk about the crisis facing Europe, specifically its self-implosion across the spectrum—energy, population, fertility, defense. 

Germany, for example, has been systematically shutting down its nuclear plants and, for a while, its natural gas electrical generation plants.

It’s relying, believe it or not, more on oil and coal. But the net result of all of this deliberate turn to wind and solar, at the expense of fossil fuels and nuclear, is that it costs about four times more to use electricity in Germany than it does on average throughout the United States. That’s not the only problem.

Germany is deindustrializing. And by that I mean it’s losing about 200,000 jobs in its auto industry due to these high energy prices and regulations. Its green mandates, especially electric vehicle mandates, have revolutionized the car industry, in the sense that they’re not selling abroad as they did in the past.

In addition to that, Germany’s disarmed. They only have about 125 attack aircraft. They have very few armored vehicles. Their active military is only about 180,000 soldiers.

They have 84 million people in the country. The fertility rate is getting very close to 1.4. I know we have problems here in the United States at 1.6, but 1.4.

And they don’t have borders. They have had a million to 2 million illegal aliens just prance into Germany, especially during the last years of the Merkel chancellorship. In terms of percentage of foreign-born, Germany has more foreign-born than does the United States, which doesn’t have a border in the south, at least until Donald Trump comes in. Twenty percent of the German population is foreign-born.

Why am I mentioning all of this? 

Because Germany represents the powerhouse, traditionally, of the European economy, and even culture, and it’s starting to implode. The euro, the benchmark of European financial health, is about, right now as I speak at the end of December, one dollar to one euro, and sometimes even less for the euro.

That’s very strange because when I used to run a travel company to go to Europe—I remember in 2008, the euro was 1.6, almost 1.7 per the dollar. So what’s happening is that Germany is, I guess we would call it, undertaking a slow-motion suicide.

But here’s the irony.

In September 1944, at the height of World War II, the secretary of the treasury under the Roosevelt administration, Henry Morgenthau, had a plan for postwar Germany when it was defeated.

He didn’t want another war—the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, World War I, World War II. He said, “Enough.” So what did he do? He submitted a plan that was going to deindustrialize Germany, depopulate Germany, change its borders. It was almost as if he was trying to turn it into something like Tacitus’ description of first-century A.D. Germany, as a pastoral, agrarian society. In fact, he explicitly said that.

When Joseph Goebbels heard about this, he said, “Oh my God, this is a gift. We’re losing the war. We’ll tell all of the German people they want us to be permanently pastoral. We’ll starve to death. And even if they don’t like the Nazis, as we’ve destroyed the country, you’re losing more, they’ll fight.”

Thankfully, George Marshall, chief of staff of the Army; ex-President Herbert Hoover; and others went to the Roosevelt administration and said, “If you institute this plan, they’re going to fight to the death. And we have bombed Germany. So when we get into Germany, you’ll see that it’s almost depopulated now.”

The net result was they canceled the Morgenthau Plan that would have permanently made Germany depopulated, disarmed, deindustrialized.

What’s my point in bringing up this historical example? 

We the victors of World War II thought imposing a plan of deliberate deindustrialization, depopulization, disarmament, open borders, destroyed borders would be too Carthaginian, and so we backed off. And now we’re here 80 years after the rejection of the Morgenthau Plan and the German people, or the German leadership, have essentially updated it and inflicted it on themselves willingly, not by coercion. That’s a tragic irony and it’s something we should all take a very close look at.

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In conclusion, Hanson argues that Germany’s present crises are not due to external forces but are the result of self-inflicted policies. He likens this to “a slow-motion suicide” as Germany’s political and economic elites implement policies that are eroding the country’s economic power, military strength, and demographic stability. His commentary offers a sobering view of the future, warning that these trends, if not reversed, could lead to Germany’s further decline within Europe and the world.

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Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.