Tennessee Republican Rep. Tim Burchett has been officially named the chair of the House Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency (DOGE), which operates under the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Trump Int. Sec. reveals 'bad actor playground' in Venezuela

This is the man who made us obsessed with cats

Argentina has repaid the funds it drew from a $20 billion credit line with the Trump administration, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced Friday, in a crucial step for Argentine President Javier Milei to restore confidence in his chronically distressed economy. In addition to making payments to bondholders, Milei’s radical libertarian administration had “quickly and fully repaid its limited draw,” Bessent […] The post This Is a Big Deal: Argentina Pays Its Debt appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

President Trump said the US is going to own Greenland the easy way or the hard way because if the US doesn’t, Russia and China will. He loves Denmark, but their ship landing in Greenland doesn’t mean they own it. If we don’t take it over, he said, Russia and China will. He loves Russia […] The post On Greenland: We Will Own It, The Easy Way or the Hard Way appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

President Donald Trump made his intentions to acquire Greenland even more clear on Friday, arguing that the territory is important to fighting back against Russian and Chinese aggression. Trump said the United States would take control of Greenland the “easy way” — by making a deal — or the “hard way,” which he didn’t elaborate on. The president made the comments on Greenland while taking questions from reporters at the White House during a roundtable with oil executives that focused on rejuvenating Venezuela’s oil industry. “Right now, we are going to do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not, because if we don’t do it, Russia or China will take over Greenland,” Trump said. “And we’re not going to have Russia or china as a neighbor.” “I would like to make a deal the easy way, but if we don’t do it the easy way, we’re going to do it the hard way,” he added. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said earlier this week that the U.S. military “is always an option at the commander-in-chief’s disposal” when discussing the national security importance of Greenland. Trump has suggested at times throughout his second term that the United States should take over Greenland, but following his recent move on Venezuela, the president has made Greenland a major focus of his foreign policy plans. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said earlier this week that the threat of Trump using military force on Greenland is important to his negotiating strategy. Rubio added that Trump prefers to purchase Greenland from Denmark, which oversees the autonomous territory and is a NATO ally. After Trump revived his push for Greenland, the territory’s leaders, along with Denmark, pushed back and requested a meeting with Rubio. “The strong request for a meeting is related to the U.S.’s claims about our country,” said Greenland Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeld, according to ABC News. “Unfortunately, our country’s request for a meeting for a long time has not been successful, although this has been repeatedly requested by our country.” Denmark Foreign Minister Lars Rasmussen also requested to meet with Rubio, and the U.S. secretary of State plans to meet with Denmark officials next week, ABC News reported. European nations and Canada have expressed concern after Trump revived talk about taking over Greenland. In a joint statement from France, Britain, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, and Denmark, European leaders said that “Greenland belongs to its people. It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland.” Canada and the Netherlands also endorsed the statement, Reuters reported. Trump told reporters on Sunday that the United States needs “Greenland from the standpoint of national security and the European Union needs us to have it and they know that.” Trump’s adviser, Stephen Miller, then said on Monday, “Nobody’s going to fight the United States militarily over the future of Greenland.” Republican lawmakers, including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), have also pushed back on the idea of the U.S. military being used to acquire Greenland. Johnson said, “I don’t think it’s appropriate,” while Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) said that “even a modestly intelligent ninth grader knows that to invade Greenland would be weapons-grade stupid.” “Now, President Trump is not weapons-grade stupid, nor is Marco Rubio. They do not plan to invade Greenland,” Kennedy added.

The situation in Minnesota continues to roil the waters. We are looking at the very real possibility of a standoff between the state government led by Governor Tim Walz — the failed vice presidential candidate who just had to step away from a third-term run in Minnesota because of the allegations of fraud — and the federal government. On Thursday, Walz — who is in a world of hurt politically right now because of the Somali fraud scandal — compared this moment to the Civil War. Apparently, it is now the Civil War if you send ICE to enforce arrest warrants against criminals in this country. Walz stated: When things looked really bleak it was Minnesota’s first that held that line for the nation on that July 3rd, 1863. And I think now we may be in that moment; that the nation is looking to us to hold the line on democracy, to hold the line on decency, to hold the line on accountability, and more than that, to rise up as neighbors and simply say, we can look out for one another. We can have differences. But we proved to the world going on 250 years that our democracy could hold. It feels to me like we’re at one of those inflection points. I’ve said many, many times that when you have high-level politicians talking this way, it is truly bad for the country. When you say we are at the point where we are going to go to war with one another and a civil war is about to break out, and it’s the end of the country, these statements turn into self-perpetuating prophecies. That’s because the more people believe they can’t get along with their neighbors, that there is no basis for a common Americanism, the more they are likely to see each other as enemies and not political opponents. Walz also said: I’d ask everyone to pause for a moment of silence to remember Renee Good, also to remember all that’s good and right about this nation. And, I’m going to ask folks if they can, I’d ask employers to give their people some space. I’d ask each and everyone to find a way to contribute in your community. Might be shoveling your neighbor’s walk. It might be being at a food bank. It might be pausing to talk to someone you haven’t talked to before, but to show the goodness, to rise up to make sure that we’re being very, very clear about this, that we expect our constitutional rights to be respected, that law enforcement is local, that we expect accountability of our elected leaders and that we are not going to go quietly and we’re not going to give up on those things that matter so much to us. And chief amongst those is human dignity, respect, rule of law. All of the things that we know make this country great.  That’s bizarre, Orwellian language. Walz moves very quickly from “we should take this moment of silence, to go work at a food bank or talk to someone you’ve never talked to before,” to “we need to respect rule of law” while holding a moment of silence for a person who, at the very least, was involved in obstruction of the performance of law. When he says that law enforcement must be local, what he means is that federal law enforcement shouldn’t do its job. And when he says that we should “rise up,” when he says that we have an obligation to stand up for our constitutional rights — you do not have a constitutional right to be in this country illegally, nor do you have a constitutional right to thwart federal law enforcement’s pursuit of criminal illegal immigrants and their deportation. You do not have the right to do any of those things. All of this is part and parcel, of course, of Tim Walz’s broader agenda, which is to label ICE as the Gestapo, which is what he did last year. You wonder why people are out there confronting ICE? When you put people in a moral position where they feel they must confront federal law enforcement and do it over and over and over again, the basic rule is: the more people are confronting law enforcement, the more there will be bad situations that emerge from those confrontations. This is just the way the world works. Listening to Tim Walz talk about morality is astonishing, considering that just last year he said that China — a true authoritarian state — might be the global moral authority. He said:  Who holds the moral authority? Who holds the ability to do that, because we are not seen as a neutral actor and we maybe never were. I don’t want to tell anybody that; I think there’s a lot of people say you always lean one way in this, but I think there was at least an attempt to be somewhat of the arbitrator in this. We saw President Carter do it with Begin and Sadat. We’ve had certain wins along the way that were actually mutually beneficial both ways. Now I ask who that is. And I mean consistently over and over again, we’re going to have to face the reality. It might be the Chinese. Unbelievable. That person is the person who’s now the moral authority talking about authoritarianism? Remember, he presided over the riots in 2020 that shut down a city in his state because he was unable to handle basic law enforcement functions in his state. The reason that Tim Walz is going so hard here is because he recently had to step away from running for a third-term because of the fraud in his state — a fraud scandal largely emanating from the Somali community, which, of course, is the community at issue in these immigration raids from ICE. For Walz to preach about morality and the rule of law, he has to ignore his own history. And he’s doing just that.

Sometimes the right person ends up in our path just when we need them, and we may not even know it. In 2018, college senior Joey Romano broke his wrist while skateboarding. He knew that an ambulance would likely cost a lot of money, but he had to get to the hospital. Joey called for an Uber, never realizing that one call would change his life. Beni Lukumu arrived to pick Joey up and first took him to urgent care. When staff determined his injury needed a hospital’s attention, Beni didn’t think twice. He took Joey to the emergency room. That act of kindness changed his life. Beni Lukumu Was More Than an Uber Driver—He Became Joy Romano’s Friend Beni Lukumu told Today he knew that Joey Romano needed him that day. “It wasn’t even a question for me,” Beni said. “I was staying with Joey. He needed somebody to be by his side.” Beni stayed with Joey for more than six hours and sang to comfort his new friend. “I was on a morphine drip and I remember feeling glad he was there. He has this warm presence, and strangely, it felt like we had known each other forever,” Joey said. Joey’s grandmother arrived at the hospital and offered to pay Beni, but he politely declined. Instead, he accepted a dinner invitation that helped deepen their friendship. Joey told Today he met Beni and that it was a rough spot in his life. He’s lost his brother to leukemia and really needed the friendship. “After losing my brother… and experiencing so much loss beyond that… I just became really insular. I could barely take care of myself, let alone others,” Joey said. “I just shut down and closed myself off. I became really cold.” Joey Romano said that Beni Lukumu’s kindness changed the way he lives his life. “That one act of kindness helped me see the good in the world again,” Joey said. “Having him spend his entire day with me — a complete stranger, for no reason than the goodness of his heart, helped me to put things into perspective. Beni absolutely changed my life.” This story’s featured image is by  Klaudia Radecka/NurPhoto via Getty Images