Texas Weekly Online

Texas-trans-white
Menu
Menu

Year: 2025

Trump to reinstate service members discharged for not getting COVID-19 vaccine

Trump to reinstate service members discharged for not getting COVID-19 vaccine

President Donald Trump will sign an executive order to reinstate service members booted from the military for declining to get COVID-19 vaccine jabs, according to the White House. Those reinstated will be returned to their prior rank, and be provided back pay and benefits. The White House fact sheet indicates that just 43 of the over 8,000 service members discharged over their COVID-19 vaccination status opted to return to the military. This is a breaking news story and will be updated

Thomas Massie says he loves teenage Boy Scout’s policy proposal: Zero tax for workers younger than 18

Thomas Massie says he loves teenage Boy Scout’s policy proposal: Zero tax for workers younger than 18

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., noted that a Boy Scout proposed a policy of not taxing workers younger than age 18. The congressman from the Bluegrass State listed several reasons why he loves the idea. “A 15 yr old Boy Scout working on his merit badge just sent me this idea: No taxes on workers under 18 yrs old. I love it because: 1. They need experience to pick a college major 2. They need to develop a work ethic 3. The economy needs more workers 4. They don’t get to vote,” Massie wrote in a post on X. MASSIE AND OTHER REPUBLICANS PUSH ‘NATIONAL CONSTITUTIONAL CARRY ACT’ TO PROTECT AMERICANS’ GUN RIGHTS Someone responded to the lawmaker, suggesting that youths “don’t make enough money for the most part and get it back when they file taxes. It is a good lesson on how to file taxes and gives them a chance to get a return,” the person opined. Massie replied, “Sounds like conditioning to be sheeple. Hard pass.” Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., indicated that high minimum wages box young people out of the job market. REPUBLICAN LAWMAKERS PUSH TO ABOLISH ‘UNCONSTITUTIONAL’ ATF “So many of our youth have lost the opportunity to enter the workforce due to high minimum wage requirements. High taxes, insurance, and paid leave requirements are a few of many issues as well. Small business owners are unable to invest in first-time workers or provide them with skills training for their future,” she tweeted. “Great points!” Massie replied. He has previously suggested that the U.S. should nix the federal income tax entirely. MASSIE DROPS COLORFUL ANALOGY OPPOSING FOREIGN AID, MOCKS SPEAKER JOHNSON WITH AI-GENERATED IMAGE “The federal income tax was unconstitutional for most of our [country’s] existence. The founders of this country would have never agreed to it. We should repeal it,” he tweeted in February 2024. Massie has also spoken out against foreign aid. “My position of ‘no foreign aid’ might sound extreme to some, but it’s far more extreme to force future generations of Americans into indentured servitude to our foreign creditors,” he noted in a 2023 post.

Tennessee lawmaker reintroduces bill to allow veterans, retired cops to work as School Resource Officers

Tennessee lawmaker reintroduces bill to allow veterans, retired cops to work as School Resource Officers

A Tennessee state lawmaker reintroduced a bill for the 2025 legislative session that would look to fill a shortage of School Resource Officers by allowing veterans and retired law enforcement officers to be hired. Republican Rep. Tim Rudd reintroduced the bill for the 2025 legislative session. It was passed by the House during the last legislative session, but it failed to make it through the Senate. The bill would allow public charter schools to hire honorably discharged veterans and retired law enforcement officers to serve as School Resource Officers. TENNESSEE SCHOOL SHOOTER ‘SIGNIFICANTLY INFLUENCED’ BY MATERIAL FOUND ON ‘HARMFUL’ WEBSITES: POLICE Applicants must complete 40 hours of basic training in school policy, pass a test to be eligible to purchase and possess a handgun, receive written authorization to carry or possess a firearm on school grounds, undergo a psychiatric evaluation and pass an FBI criminal history check. “They still have to go through training. The reason why is to try to find more resource officers in these rural areas, especially so we can protect our children,” Rudd told WTVC. “This certainly won’t solve the shortage problem, but it will help,” he added. “Ultimately, it’d be up to the school system whether they want to use them, and what guidelines and rules they put in place.” Rudd says the proposal would help veterans and retired law enforcement officers, but the main priority is to protect the children. A man who served in the Navy for more than 20 years said the measure could be an opportunity for veterans to find a renewed purpose and be a role model for students. “They have all the skills that would be necessary to bring into the environment of a school environment as a resource officer,” Mickey McCamish told WTVC. TENNESSEE SCHOOL SHOOTER WHO KILLED 1, INJURED ANOTHER IDENTIFIED AS TEEN STUDENT: POLICE The transition from military life to civilian life can be difficult for some, but McCamish says these individuals would be perfect role models for students. “There just couldn’t be a better fit than having veterans as a role model to students in either a resource officer position or just to be a part of the school life,” he said.

From TikTok to Tulsi: How Mike Pence is taking aim at Trump 2.0

From TikTok to Tulsi: How Mike Pence is taking aim at Trump 2.0

It’s the second week of the second Trump presidency, and Mike Pence has some concerns.  Coming off a trip to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, the former vice president is more convinced than ever of the need for the U.S. to stand strong against China and bolster Taiwan’s defenses.  “There seems to be this suggestion on both sides of a certain thawing in relations, which in principle I welcome, but not compromising on principles,” he told a small group of reporters at the Advancing American Freedom office in Washington, D.C.  And in the new Trump 2.0, Pence is convinced that his brand of neoconservatism is not dead, at least not yet.  “There have been voices of isolationism that have been emerging in our party of late,” he said. “I’m not yet convinced that they represent the president’s views.”  The former vice president does not believe the 2024 election was a referendum on interventionist policy.  TRUMP’S ‘BLACKLIST’: PRESIDENT-ELECT DESCRIBES THE TYPE OF PEOPLE HE DOESN’T WANT TO HIRE “I don’t think people were voting for isolationism in 2024.” But Pence refused to endorse President Donald Trump in the 2024 election. Pence and Trump fell out after the January 6th Capitol riot, and Trump, in turn, recently suggested that he wouldn’t hire anyone who had worked for his former second-in-command. “There are loud voices, both inside and outside the administration that are calling on America to pull back from, whether it be Eastern Europe, the Asia Pacific, and even some are calling for us to pull back on our longstanding support for Israel,” Pence went on. “One of the things we want to be, Advancing American Freedom and whatever remains of my bully pulpit, is to be an anchor to windward for traditional conservatism within the Republican Party.” In Hong Kong, Pence stood in front of 2,000 people and called for authorities to release Jimmy Lai, an imprisoned media mogul and pro-democracy activist, to the audible gasps of the crowd.  Back at home, he’s calling on Trump to “reconsider” the U.S.-Nippon Steel merger that Biden stopped. He is also worried his former boss does not fully grasp the dangers of TikTok, after Trump’s newfound embrace of the video-sharing platform where he enjoys 15 million followers. He signed an executive order this week giving TikTok another 75 days in operation after Congress passed a law last year forcing them to divest from Chinese-owned ByteDance or face a ban in the U.S.  “I am concerned that the administration doesn’t fully appreciate the issues that animated the need for divestment,” said Pence.  “People that are in their 20s and 30s today could be in the Senate – in the House in 10 years. The fact that the Chinese Communist Party is collecting data on Americans, whatever their age or experience is, is not something to be dismissed.” The former vice president said that China is trying to infiltrate public opinion in Taiwan ahead of a possible invasion to try to take over the island.  “The CCP thinks the principal value of TikTok is the ability to impact public opinion at a critical moment,” he said. “When I met with leadership in Taiwan, on TikTok they said, in effect, they’re dealing with an onslaught of social media propaganda coming out of China into Taiwan, trying to set the stage for whatever action, economic, political or hard power may be coming their way.”  It was the first Trump administration that made tough-on-China policies go mainstream, according to Pence.  TRUMP’S LATEST HIRES AND FIRES RANKLE IRAN HAWKS AS NEW PRESIDENT SUGGESTS NUCLEAR DEAL “I am convinced that our administration changed the national consensus on China,” he said. “I would point out that President Biden never undid the $250 billion in tariffs that we imposed.” Pence said he is also worried about Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic congresswoman-turned Republican whom Trump has nominated to be his director of national intelligence.  She has “at times over the last two years, been an apologist for Putin. And, you know, has a history of being critical of the use of American power,” said Pence. “I think, if memory serves, she actually criticized when we took out [top Iranian general] Qassem Soleimani.” Trump suggested that he might want to sit down with Iran and work on a new nuclear deal on Thursday. But Pence said he trusts the new administration, particularly officials like Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Michael Waltz, not to get taken for a ride by Iran.  “The first order of business is to go back to isolating around economically, and diplomatically, and making it clear that different from the Iran nuclear deal there, there would have to be a sea change in any policy regarding nuclear weapons or the state of Israel.” “I trust that the administration will be very cautious in any of those interactions.”   Pence’s group has already come out with a campaign in opposition to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.  To do that, the former vice president said he would be anything but retired from public life. He plans to continue to advocate for increasing defense spending – 5% of GDP is his current goal – and to use his voice to convince elected officials to stand strong with America’s friends and boost deterrent measures to prevent a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.  The U.S. has a longstanding policy of ambiguity when it comes to whether it would actually stand shoulder-to-shoulder on the ground with Taiwan if China were to invade. Even in private life, Pence isn’t ready to say whether that would be the right move.  CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “There’s an old saying, ‘Never say what you’ll never do,’” he said.  “We ought to have one hand extended in friendship in exchange, and the other hand resting comfortably on the holster of the arsenal of democracy.”