CMR is the leading provider of funding and management support for small to medium-sized businesses and entrepreneurs 

Authored by Luis Cornelio via Headline USA,

Two MSNBC hosts were forced to eat their own words on Tuesday after blindly repeating a now-retracted AP report about Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard supposedly referring to President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin as “very good friends.”  

MSNBC set the record straight last night and corrected false reporting about DNI Tulsi Gabbard. pic.twitter.com/b7MZEW1zwj

— Alex Pfeiffer (@Pfeiffer47) March 19, 2025

The AP had to walk back its demonstrably false report, as it was revealed Gabbard had been talking about Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

Ali Velshi and Stephanie Ruhle, the insufferable anchors of The Last Word and 11th Hour, respectively, were left scrambling after parroting the AP’s debunked claim in a desperate attempt to smear the Trump administration. 

As reported by the Daily Caller, Velshi said his show had “reported on excerpts of an interview between the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, and an Indian TV news network in which she said that Trump was good friends with the world leader.” 

He added, “Now we said that world leader was Vladimir Putin, but the full interview was subsequently released and it showed that Gabbard was referring to Donald Trump and the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.” 

Ruhle echoed Velshi’s retraction nearly verbatim, which was likely written by attorneys to avoid legal repercussions.  

“Last night, we reported on excerpts of an interview between the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard and an Indian TV news network in which she said that Trump was good friends with a world leader,” Ruhle said, according to the Caller. 

“Now we said that world leader was Vladimir Putin, but the full interview shows that Gabbard was referring to Trump and Indian Prime Minister Modi. We cleared that up,” she admitted. 

The AP itself issued a press statement retracting its false claim: 

“The Associated Press has withdrawn its story about U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard saying President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘are very good friends.’ Gabbard was talking about Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The AP will publish a corrected version of the story.” 

Alexa Henning, Gabbard’s spokesperson and seasoned Republican communicator, minced no words in response to the AP, scolding their reporting as “total trash.” 

“This is why no one trusts the maliciously incompetent and purposefully bias media,” Henning said. 

“If this isn’t a clear example of pushing a solely political narrative, then nothing is.” 

Trump on banning the AP from the Oval Office & Air Force One:

"That's the way life works. Thank you for the question." ?? pic.twitter.com/U9tSEe0pCP

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) February 18, 2025

The AP scandal comes just weeks after Trump revoked the news outlet’s special access to the Oval Office, citing their misleading and false reporting.

Authored by Kimberley Hayek via The Epoch Times,

Major corporations are choosing to not sponsor San Francisco’s 2025 Pride parade and street fair, the event organizer said.

“This year, many long-time corporate sponsors have withdrawn their support, leaving a critical gap in funding,” said Suzanne Ford, executive director of San Francisco Pride, in a statement on the organization’s website.

Scheduled for June 28 and 29, the 55th Pride celebration is part of an annual event that hosts “the largest LGBTQ+ parade in the world.”

Companies including Comcast, Anheuser-Busch, alcoholic beverage company Diageo, Benefit Cosmetics, and wine company La Crema have decided not to sponsor the event this year, Ford told local Fox affiliate KTVU in an interview published March 15.

While the businesses cited a lack of funds, Ford suspects the real reason is the country’s political climate under President Donald Trump, KTVU reported.

In January, Trump rolled back diversity, equity, and inclusion policies and programs and declared that the federal government would recognize only two sexes.

He also directed the military to exclude individuals with a gender identity inconsistent with their sex from service, which was blocked in a preliminary injunction on March 18 by a federal judge.

Ford told KTVU the five companies’ donations accounted for approximately $300,000 of the $1.2 million fundraising goal. 

Pride organizers are now scrambling for new sponsors for this summer’s festivities, which include parties, concerts, and the parade.

The Epoch Times reached out to the companies and San Francisco Pride and did not hear back by publication time.

The first installment of San Francisco Pride took the form of a small march on Polk Street and a gathering in Golden Gate Park in June 1970.

Major companies that participated in the 2024 parade include Hilton, Visa, Apple, IKEA, Merck, eBay, and Amazon, according to the organizer.

Earlier this month, the Pride organization also announced that it had terminated its relationship with Meta, the Menlo Park-based company that owns Facebook and Instagram, after company representatives made it clear they no longer wanted to be involved, Ford said.

“I’m both proud and sad that we don’t have a relationship with Meta,” Ford told ABC7 on March 4. “That was discontinued last year. So, at this moment, and I don’t see it being rectified, Meta will not be included.”

A federal judge Thursday issued a two-week temporary restraining order (TRO) preventing Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing personally identifiable information from the Social Security administration.

US District Judge Ellen Hollander of Maryland also ordered DOGE to delete any personally identifiable data they may possess. The ruling come after labor unions and retirees asked for an emergency order limiting DOGE access to the agency and its vast troves of personal data, AP reports.

"The DOGE Team is essentially engaged in a fishing expedition at SSA, in search of a fraud epidemic, based on little more than suspicion," wrote Hollander, an Obama appointee.

The order still allows DOGE to access 'redacted or anonymized data and records of SSA.'

According to the Trump administration, DOGE has a 10-person team of federal employees investigating the Social Security Administration, seven of whom have been granted read-only access to agency systems or personally identifiable information. The government has argued that DOGE access doesn't significantly deviate from normal practices inside the agency whereby employees can search databases.

*  *  *

Down to our last few green Waxed Canvas Hats!

*  *  *

Established via executive order on January 20, 2025, DOGE aims to cut federal spending, reduce the size of the federal workforce, and modernize government technology.

In mid-February, acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration, Michelle King, resigned after a standoff with Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) over access to sensitive government records.

Today's ruling follows a string of judicial DOGE-blocking - as their access to records across the federal government have prompted disputes with senior officials at various agencies. Perhaps most prominently, the highest-ranking civil servant at the US Treasury Department quit after similarly refusing to grant Musk's team access to the Bureau of Fiscal Service, which manages over $5 trillion in annual payments.

On February 8, 2025, Judge Paul A. Engelmayer in New York blocked DOGE from Treasury records after 19 states, led by NY AG Letitia James, sued over cybersecurity threats. Subsequent rulings, like Judge Deborah Boardman’s February 24 TRO on Education and OPM data, reinforced limits on DOGE’s reach. These cases established that DOGE’s “need-to-know” basis for PII access was unproven.

The same day that King quit, Musk posted what he says could be the 'biggest fraud in US history' in which millions of 'people' over the age of 100 are collecting payments.

According to the Social Security database, these are the numbers of people in each age bucket with the death field set to FALSE!

Maybe Twilight is real and there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security ???? pic.twitter.com/ltb06VX98Z

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 17, 2025

King - who worked at the agency for over 30 years, left her position this weekend after refusing to give DOGE staffers access to sensitive information, such as the fraudulent payments to 'vampires' - with at least one recipient being older than the United States itself.

To that end, DOGE has removed the names of 3.2 million individuals from the Social Security database, many of whom were listed as 120 years of age or older. The agency has now marked them as deceased.

"For the past two weeks, @SocialSecurity has been conducting a major cleanup of its records. Approximately 3.2 million number holders, all listed as age 120+, have now been marked as deceased. More work remains to be done," the agency posted on X.

Musk shared the post, responding "Cleaning up the dead people database."

Cleaning up the dead people database https://t.co/KtVUpshpvl

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 18, 2025

The Supreme Court Needs To Step In

In response to the spate of Democrat judges blocking just about every Trump move of import, investor Joe Lonsdale hopes that "The Supreme Court's going to step in and make some sound rulings here and stop activist judges from violating the Constitution by their interference. It is going to be a big issue."

.@JTLonsdale: Supreme Court Must Correct Activist Judges' 'Interference' Against DOGE

"I'm glad you mentioned it because it was so ridiculous. The ruling was so misguided that it thought Congress had created USAID, which is not correct. It was actually created by executive… pic.twitter.com/flMw6Xplvm

— Josh Caplan (@joshdcaplan) March 20, 2025

Update (1630ET): As expected, President Trump is holding an event Thursday afternoon at the White House centered on his plans to overhaul the Education Department.

?? TRUMP: "I will begin eliminating the federal Department of Education once and for all."

"We're pleased to be joined by [the] LAST Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon." @EDSecMcMahon

LET'S GO!! pic.twitter.com/gxxv4k6Jv1

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) March 20, 2025

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said all the critical functions of the Department of Education will remain, ahead of President Trump signing an executive order to dismantle the federal agency.

“The Department of Education will be much smaller than it is today. As you know, the president’s executive order directed Linda McMahon to greatly minimize the agency. So, when it comes to student loans and Pell Grants, those will still be run out of the Department of Education,” she told reporters at the White House, referring to McMahon, the Education secretary. 

“The great responsibility of educating our nation’s students will return to the states. Any critical functions of the department … will remain,” Leavitt added.

Leavitt’s comment comes as the president said he wants the department completely eliminated, but that would require an act of Congress, which is unlikely to happen since 60 votes would be needed in the Senate.

In her first comments on the executive order, obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller, McMahon explains that the department “will continue to support K-12 students, students with special needs, college student borrowers, and others” while working with the states to give them control over education.

“Closing the Department does not mean cutting off funds from those who depend on them — we will continue to support K-12 students, students with special needs, college student borrowers, and others who rely on essential programs. We’re going to follow the law and eliminate the bureaucracy responsibly by working with Congress and state leaders to ensure a lawful and orderly transition,” McMahon says in her statement.

“With today’s action, we take a significant step forward to give parents and states control over their children’s education. Teachers will be unshackled from burdensome regulations and paperwork, empowering them to get back to teaching basic subjects. Taxpayers will no longer be burdened with tens of billions of dollars of waste on progressive social experiments and obsolete programs. K-12 and college students will be relieved of the drudgery caused by administrative burdens — and positioned to achieve success in a future career they love,” she continues.

The executive order does not abolish the department, but rather sizes it down as it calls for “uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely.”

*  *  *

As Zachary Stieber detailed earlier, via The Epoch Times, President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order on March 20 that will facilitate the dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education, taking a step toward fulfilling a campaign pledge.

The order, which has been under preparation for weeks, will be signed at a White House event with several Republican governors and state education commissioners in attendance, as confirmed by the White House. The plan was first reported by USA Today.

Trump will direct his recently confirmed Education Secretary Linda McMahon to take all required steps to prepare for the closure of the Education Department and transfer its authority to the states, according to a White House fact sheet obtained by NTD TV, sister media of The Epoch Times.

According to the fact sheet, the order also aims to ensure that, throughout the process, there is no disruption in the delivery of services, programs, and benefits that Americans rely on.

The order also instructs that any programs or activities receiving remaining Department of Education funds will not promote diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) or gender ideology.

The Department of Education did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

McMahon, confirmed by the Senate on March 3, said in her first message to employees—titled “Our Department’s Final Mission”—that her “vision is aligned with the president’s: to send education back to the states.”

She added, “Our job is to respect the will of the American people and the President they elected, who has tasked us with accomplishing the elimination of bureaucratic bloat here at the Department of Education—a momentous final mission—quickly and responsibly.”

The Department of Education employed about 4,200 workers before its recent termination of around 1,300, and the buyout of another 600.

The agency’s current form stems from a 1979 law that made it independent by splitting it from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

The federal government’s role in education, according to the White House, has failed students, parents, and teachers.

National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores demonstrate that student achievement has not improved, despite more than $3 trillion invested since the Department of Education’s inception in 1979, according to the fact sheet.

Trump promised on the campaign trail to abolish the Department of Education, alleging it is responsible for indoctrinating America’s youth.

Continue reading at The Epoch Times

*  *   *

FedEx stock tumbled after the company missed EPS expectations and lowered its full-year profit outlook for a third consecutive quarter as mounting economic uncertainty added to sputtering demand already squeezing the parcel company’s bottom line.

For fiscal Q3, the company reported a revenue beat but this was offset by a miss in both profit margins, operating income and EPS:

• Adjusted EPS $4.51, missing estimate $4.57
• Revenue $22.2 billion, beating estimate $21.91 billion
  • Federal Express revenue $19.18 billion, beating estimate $18.94 billion
  • FedEx Freight rev. $2.09 billion, beating estimate $2.07 billion
• Adjusted operating income $1.51 billion, missing estimate of $1.52 billion
• Adjusted operating margin 6.8%, missing estimates of 7.06%

But what really spooked investors and sent the stock plunging after hours, was the company's guidance which was slashed for the third time in a row, sparking rumblings about a possible CEO change:

• Sees revenue flat to slightly down YoY, also a downgrade from the previous guidance of flat YoY
• Adjusted EPS now expected to be in the range of $18 to $18.60 per share this fiscal year, well below the company's prior guidance of $19-20 and also below the consensus estimates of $18.95 on average.

The gloomier outlook shows how FedEx continues to wrestle with sputtering package demand amid mounting signs of economic slowdown. Weakness from industrial customers is weighing on its services that cater to businesses, CFO John Dietrich said in a statement Thursday announcing results.

Commenting on the quarter, CEO Raj Subramaniam said the company faced a “very challenging” operating environment in the period that included a shorter peak shipping season and severe weather. Subramaniam is working to transform the company by combining its Express unit that ships parcels by air with its Ground delivery network. The broader industry has been suffering from a prolonged period of weakness as cash-strapped customers spend on services rather than goods, and a growing preference for slower, cheaper delivery options instead of more profitable express shipping.

FedEx also made the following comments:

• Freight segment operating results decreased due to lower fuel surcharges, reduced weight per shipment, and fewer shipments, partially offset by higher base yield
• Federal Express segment operating results improved during the quarter, driven by cost reduction benefits from DRIVE, higher base yield, and increased U.S. and international export volume
• FedEx Freight segment operating results decreased during the quarter due to lower fuel surcharges, reduced weight per shipment, and fewer shipments, partially offset by higher base yield
• Progresses FedEx Freight Spin-Off Preparation
• Still Sees Cost Reductions of $2.2B

FedEx is the latest US company to sound the alarm over weakening consumer confidence and potential fallout from Trump’s escalating trade war, even though the company's stated reason for the miss - lower fuel surcharges - goes directly opposite to what it is accusing Trump of doing, namely pushing prices higher. Maybe Fedex can

The parcel company is considered an economic bellwether because of its exposure to a broad swath of the global economy, from retail to manufacturing.

In kneejerk response, FDX stock tumbled 5% after hours, and is down 12% this year through Thursday’s close. It is now at levels last seen more than a year ago.

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

MSNBC analyst and former Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill has long been criticized for unhinged rhetoric. 

That was evident on “Morning Joe” recently when McCaskill said that the deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members was akin to Putin “disappearing” people. 

It is not the first such analogy by McCaskill, who has called those opposing the censorship under the Biden Administration “Putin lovers.” 

However, just for the record, Putin does not generally disappear people by putting them on flights back to their countries. He tends more toward nerve agents than immigration agents to remove people.

McCaskill’s comments have been echoed by others on the left, even before the election.

On ABC’s “The View,” Whoopi Goldberg told viewers how Trump is already committed to being a dictator who will “put you people away … take all the journalists … take all the gay folks … move you all around and disappear you.”

I have expressed concerns over the alleged failure to comply with the order of U.S. District Judge James “Jeb” Boasberg in his order to stop such flights and return those in transit. 

To the extent that the White House is arguing that this is a non-justiciable matter, that is an argument to raise on appeal.

I have criticized some judges for intrusion into areas of presidential discretion. However, the Trump Administration would only undermine such cases by defying court orders.

Trump struck the perfect tone after coming into office by pledging to comply with opposing court orders while appealing them. That is what he did in his first term with considerable success.

Nevertheless, the analogy of McCaskill is the latest example of the rising hysteria on the left. She stated on MSNBC:

“We’ve got to make sure that people cannot be picked up and disappeared like his buddy Putin does. Like his buddy. He does like his buddy Xi does, like his biddy Kim Jong Un does. They do this? 

They disappear people and many times murder them. 

So we’re not going to go down that road. I don’t care how much the president screams irresponsibly about impeachment, there’s no way.”

McCaskill tends to paint those with opposing views as Nazis or Putin sympathizers. After one hearing (where I also testified against the censorship system under the Biden Administration), McCaskill appeared on MSNBC to denounce the witnesses (Sen. Chuck Grassley, Sen. Ron Johnson, and former Rep. Gabbard) as “Putin apologists” and Putin lovers. She exclaimed, “I mean, look at this, I mean, all three of those politicians are Putin apologists. I mean, Tulsi Gabbard loves Putin.”

She has also said that Trump is “more dangerous than Hitler” — a person who committed the genocide of millions and triggered a war killing tens of millions. Yeah, that Hitler.

The problem with the escalating rhetoric is that there is nowhere to go from here. You jumped the shark. What is left after saying that Trump is more dangerous than Hitler and is disappearing people like Putin? That leaves only Ebola and cholera.

There is a danger to such “rage rhetoric” when it gives a license to others to take violent action, including attempting to assassinate a justice or a president. Indeed, once the left hit the maximal level of panic politics, you cannot ratchet down without being yourself subject to attack from the mob. You have to keep the rhetoric at a DEFCON 1 level.

There is another possibility worth considering. Every administration has come into power with sweeping changes. They are hashed out in the courts. If history is any guide, it is likely that Trump will win many but also lose some of these cases. That includes challenges to the authority of courts.

You can criticize these moves without reaching for the Hitler and Putin analogies. We have the most stable, most successful constitutional system in the history of the world. This is no constitutional crisis. We have this. Our constitution and courts will resolve any conflicts and we will continue as a free people. The only thing likely to “disappear” are the ratings and viewers of networks who traffic in rage rhetoric and panic politics.

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”