Almost immediately after Donald Trump’s handpicked team took the reins at the Republican National Committee — team that includes his daughter-in-law — the party’s new leaders got to work making significant staffing changes. In fact, in mid-March, the RNC hired two new lawyers to oversee the party’s election-year legal efforts......

The other attorney was longtime Republican lawyer Charlie Spies, who was hired to serve as the RNC’s chief counsel. At least, that was the idea two months ago. NBC News reported over the weekend:

Republican National Committee chief counsel Charlie Spies is parting ways with the party apparatus just months after stepping into the role. He was “pushed out,” according to a source familiar with the move.

After the news was made official, Trump turned to his social media platform to celebrate the developments. “Great news for the Republican Party. RINO lawyer Charlie Spies is out as Chief Counsel of the RNC,” the former president wrote, denouncing the experienced Republican lawyer who’d been hired by his own RNC team.....

Indeed, a Washington Post report over the weekend noted that the lawyer’s RNC career was cut short, at least in part, because Trump “grew angry about his criticism of the former president’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.”

When the former president recently sat down with Time magazine, he said he’d have a problem hiring someone who rejected his ridiculous election lies. Evidently, this attitude extends to the RNC, too.

All was not well at the RNC before its new leadership team took over. Recent developments suggest the party's troubles persist.

It was about a month ago when Axios reported that in a prospective second term for Donald Trump, his team intends to “dramatically change the government’s interpretation of Civil Rights-era laws to focus on ‘anti-white racism’ rather than discrimination against people of color.” Asked for comment, the Republican’s campaign didn’t exactly deny its interest in rolling back policies designed to address systemic racism.

The former president, his spokesperson said, “is committed to weeding out discriminatory programs and racist ideology across the federal government.”.....

But as part of the same exchange, the former president went on to say, “I think there is a definite anti-white feeling in this country and that can’t be allowed either.” Asked how he’d address this from the White House, Trump added:

I don’t think it would be a very tough thing to address, frankly. But I think the laws are very unfair right now. And education is being very unfair, and it’s being stifled. But I don’t think it’s going to be a big problem at all. But if you look right now, there’s absolutely a bias against white and that’s a problem.”

Or put another way, Trump isn’t entirely sure what he'd do, but he’s nevertheless certain there’s a “problem” related to the “bias against white.”....

Let’s say for the sake of conversation that recent polling is right and a meaningful number of Black voters really are prepared to overlook Trump’s many failures and lengthy record of overt racism.

If that’s the case, shouldn’t the Republican at least try to keep these voters on board? Why in the world would Trump tell Black communities in an election year that he’s deeply concerned about the “problem” related to the “bias against white,” as his team prepares to shift the federal government’s focus to protecting white people from discrimination?

It became a point of real pride for the White House — as evidenced by Biden bragging about the policy in his State of the Union address. What’s more, in the same remarks, the president said he was “directing my cabinet to review the federal classification of marijuana.”

Evidently, Biden meant it. NBC News reported this week:

The Biden administration will take a historic step toward easing federal restrictions on cannabis, with plans to announce an interim rule soon reclassifying the drug for the first time since the Controlled Substances Act was enacted more than 50 years ago, four sources with knowledge of the decision said.

It was Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services that concluded, after a year and a half of bureaucratic review, that marijuana should be reclassified from the strictest Schedule I, covering drugs such as heroin and methamphetamines, to Schedule III, which includes things like Tylenol with codeine and testosterone.

Now, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Justice Department are endorsing the move, marking the first time that federal officials have acknowledged potential medical benefits to marijuana and opening the door to therapeutic research.

It is, as an Associated Press report noted, the biggest policy change from federal officials on the issue “in more than 50 years.”.....

It’s extraordinary to see how much the landscape has changed in recent years. A decade ago, the total number of states allowing recreational marijuana use was zero, and at the national level, elected officials wanted nothing to do with reform proposals.

Now, 24 states have legalized cannabis for adult use; 37 states and Washington, D.C., have legalized medical marijuana; and the Biden administration is moving forward with reclassification plans with minimal pushback from its GOP detractors.

For decades, the United States’ “war on drugs” only moved in one punitive direction. As the latest developments help prove, it’s a new day.

HOLLAND, MICHIGAN (The Borowitz Report)—Weighing in on the unrest roiling the nation’s campuses, on Monday Betsy DeVos called for all colleges and universities in the U.S. to be shut down forever.

“At institutions of so-called higher learning, students are exposed to books, ideas, and thinking,” the former Secretary of Education said. “That will never end well.”

DeVos said that during her tenure in the Trump administration she had tried to eliminate the nation’s colleges and universities, but “sadly, I didn’t get it done.”

She held out hope, however, for a future in which America’s youth lived “free from the tyranny of education.”

"The four years students waste in college would be better spent inheriting family wealth," she said.

The North Carolina Republican Party on Saturday came under fire for a Star Wars-themed post meant to celebrate the "May the Fourth" internet holiday and promote Donald Trump.

The official account of the North Carolina Republican Party on X, formerly known as Twitter, posted an image showing Trump holding a lightsaber. The text says, "May the Fourth Be With You," which is a play on the Star Wars line, "May the force be with you."

The problem, as social media users were quick to point out, is that the ex-president was shown with a red lightsaber. According to Vox, "Sith usually use red-hued" lightsabers, such as the one Darth Vader wields.

National security attorney Bradley Moss wondered if the state GOP outpost was ignorant.

"You gave him... a red lightsaber? Do you know anything?" he asked Saturday.

Democrat Harry Sisson said, "You know the dudes who have the red lightsabers are the bad guys, right? Didn’t watch the movie I guess?"

@Venti__Poet chimed in in response to the post, "At least you know he is on the dark side."

@cj_bria said, "So, he’s a Sith Lord? Sounds about right!"

In context, the Fox host wasn’t suggesting that GOP lawmakers end pointless partisan probes; Bartiromo was instead suggesting that Jordan and his partisan allies start launching more productive partisan probes.

The far-right congressman understood the message — and acted accordingly. The conservative Washington Times reported:

House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan accused the Justice Department of coordinating with New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg in a “politicized” prosecution of former President Donald Trump. Mr. Jordan demanded in a letter recently to Attorney General Merrick B. Garland that Mr. Garland hand over documents and information about Matthew Colangelo, a former senior Justice Department official who now is a lead prosecutor for Mr. Bragg in the Trump hush money case.

Chances are, most of the public has never heard of Matthew Colangelo, though your weird uncle who consumes conservative media all day is very likely aware of him.

As we discussed a couple of years ago, Colangelo served as a former senior Justice Department official with a long history of taking on Donald Trump, including having led the investigation that led to the shutdown of Trump’s fraudulent charitable foundation. When he joined district attorney Alvin Bragg’s team in 2022, it was evidence of an intensifying investigation into the former president’s alleged crimes.....

Days later, Jordan demanded that the attorney general provide his panel with evidence related to the Colangelo conspiracy theory — at which point Bannon was pleased by the “start.”

When Jordan took over as chair of the Judiciary Committee, it stood to reason that far-right voices would help call the shots. I didn’t realize, however, just how easily he'd be bullied into submission.

Many of you probably remember standing in line to get your sugar cube with the polio vaccine on it. I sure do. I also remember have the measles, mumps and chickenpox back in the days before we had vaccines for them. How fortunate we are to have brilliant doctors and scientists who successfully created vaccines that have almost totally eradicated these diseases and many more.
The Republicans and RFK Jr want to make vaccines optional in our schools. Are you okay with bringing diseases we no longer have to suffer with back to our children? I am not! This kind of nonsense will put our children at risk and could start epidemics again. Please for the health and safety of all of us, don’t let the Republicans roll us backwards. They are proving that they don’t care about human being after they are out of the womb. No, vaccines do not cause autism.
And remember that Trump called COVID a hoax while thousands of people died from it. Don’t put dangerous people in the WH.