Germany moves 5,000 troops to Lithuania in first permanent foreign deployment since WW2

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Germany has positioned thousands of troops on Russia’s doorstep in the country’s first permanent foreign deployment since WW2.

Europe’s largest economy has set down a 5,000-strong armoured brigade in Lithuania in a bid to bolster Nato’s eastern flank in response to Russia’s war against Ukraine.

The historic move marks a departure from decades of German defence policy which had previously avoided the permanent stationing of combat troops abroad.

The newly-created 45th Armoured Brigade was formally activated in a ceremony on Tuesday outside Lithuanian capital Vilnius.

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Everything happening in Europe proves that someone who hates Europe and Russia is in charge of everything. ABN

Federal agency gives Maine final warning to ban trans athletes from girls’ sports

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The U.S. Department of Education has given Maine a final warning to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order to ban trans athletes from girls’ sports. 

The DOE sent a letter to the Maine Department of Education (MDOE) on Monday advising a final deadline of April 11 to address the issue or risk a second referral to the Department of Justice. The Department of Health and Human Services already referred Maine to the DOJ last week. 

“The Maine Department of Education’s indifference to its past, current, and future female athletes is astonishing. By refusing to comply with Title IX, MDOE allows—indeed, encourages—male competitors to threaten the safety of female athletes, wrongfully obtain girls’ hard-earned accolades, and deny females equal opportunity in educational activities to which they are guaranteed under Title IX,” the letter read. 

“Under prior administrations, enforcement was an illusory proposition. No more. The Trump-McMahon Education Department is moving quickly to ensure that federal funds no longer support patently illegal practices that harm women and girls.”

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Elon Musk reveals DOGE’s new target — members of Congress who got ‘strangely wealthy’

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Musk wants to figure out how lawmakers on Capitol Hill got “strangely wealthy” despite their comparatively modest public salaries.

Speaking at a town hall in Wisconsin Sunday night, Elon Musk suggested that his team at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) will investigate how certain members of Congress have achieved generational wealth.

One attendee at the town hall had asked Musk if DOGE had uncovered evidence of funds wired from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).

“They’ll [the government] send the money overseas to one NGO [non-governmental organization], then they’ll go through a bunch of them, and then I’m highly confident that a bunch of that money then comes back to the United States and lands in the pockets of the people you just mentioned,” Musk replied.

“But it is a circuitous route. It doesn’t go directly, but let’s just say that there’s a lot of strangely wealthy members of Congress where I’m trying to connect the dots of, ‘How do they become rich?’”

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New York Times Publishes Explosive Investigation Article Showing U.S. Military Boots on Ground in Ukraine, and CIA Operation to Target Russian Federation with Drones and Missiles

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The New York Times published two articles {HERE and HERE} revealing: 1) that U.S. military boots are on the ground in Ukraine. (2) The U.S. military is actively involved in the ongoing targeting of strikes into Russia. (3) The CIA is operating in Ukraine and conducting targeted strikes into the Russian Federation mainland.

…The motive is clear for the New York Times to outline how the CIA is operating inside Ukraine to target the Russian Federation.

The operatives who leak to the NYT want distance between Trump and Putin. This admission of CIA involvement puts Trump in an awkward place.

The awkwardness expands, when you understand how the CIA is authorized to conduct these operations. The President, Biden, signed a “finding memo,” authorizing the CIA to conduct missile strikes into the Russian Federation.

Senator Marco Rubio as SSCI vice-chair and a Gang of Eight member, was ‘read in’ to that CIA authorization.

Senator Rubio is now Secretary of State facing Sergey Lavrov, and the Russians know exactly how these things are done.

On one hand, the NYT article spills the beans and informs the public. On the other hand, their reason for purposefully spilling the beans is to create a problem for Trump and Rubio, and possibly between Trump and Rubio.

It makes sense now why Secretary of State Rubio was the first Trump official to publicly say the United States was in a proxy war against Russia using Ukraine as the justification.

On the upside, this creates an opportunity for President Trump to distance himself from the prior administration and withdraw all CIA operatives and admitted/revealed U.S. military boots on the ground in Ukraine.

President Trump could use this revelation, now public and widespread, to reset the U.S-Ukraine dynamic and withdraw all elements of prior Biden authorization from the conflict.

Will he?

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Maine Audit Reveals Systemic $2.1 Billion Financial Mismanagement and Corruption Risk

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State Auditor Matt Dunlap’s 2024 report shows a total lack of oversight for state spending and routine disregard for the rules pertaining to non-competitive contract awards

In a scathing audit of Maine’s 2024 spending, Maine’s Office of the State Auditor has revealed systemic financial mismanagement, cronyism-friendly contracting practices, and multiple material weaknesses across state agencies—leaving taxpayers exposed to legal risks, unnecessary costs, and outright corruption.

The audit, published Friday, reveals a shocking lack of practical and ethical guardrails for government spending after the Democrat-controlled legislature just passed an $11.3 billion budget and is prepared to spend another $300M-$600M — all funded by new taxes on tobacco, streaming entertainment, ambulances, and more.

At the center of the audit’s most troubling findings is the state’s rampant abuse of the non-competitive bidding process. Maine’s centralized procurement agency, the Office of State Procurement Services (OSPS), was found to have routinely approved contracts without conducting required cost analyses, bypassing rules meant to safeguard public dollars. This raises serious red flags about favoritism, nepotism, and possible corruption within the process for handing out state and federal cash.

The competitive bidding process, which ensures that potentially large government contracts are awarded according to an open and transparent process, has been regularly circumvented in violation of state and federal law, according to State Auditor Matt Dunlap.

The result?

More than $2.1 billion in FY2024 contract payments were made under a system the audit describes as lacking basic supervisory oversight and controls​.

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