“LAWLESS INSURRECTION”:  On President Trump’s 99^th day in office he signed an executive order to identify and if necessary punish so-called “sanctuary cities” that do not cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

   In an order escribing lack of cooperation by local authorities as “a lawless insurrection against the supremacy of Federal law,” Trump Attorney General Pam Bondi and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem to draw up a list of sanctuary cities so the government can cut off funding if necessary to force those municipalities to help round up illegal immigrants.

  Trump’s order cites Constitutional “power to protect national security and conduct foreign policy.” It also says lack of cooperation could fall under the criminal racketeering laws and that, “Some measures to assist illegal aliens also necessarily violate Federal laws prohibiting discrimination against Americans in favor of illegal aliens and protecting Americans’ civil rights.”

  Trump also signed a separate order to establish a legal defense fund for law enforcement officers accused of wrongdoing on the job. His order says, “When local leaders demonize law enforcement and impose legal and political handcuffs that make aggressively enforcing the law impossible, crime thrives and innocent citizens and small business owners suffer.” 

  The President also proposes the prosecution of local authorities “directly and unlawfully prohibiting law enforcement officers from carrying out duties necessary for public safety and law enforcement.”    

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE:

— Hundreds of lawyers and staff in the Justice Department’s civil rights division are leaving  as the new management turns its focus to such things as eliminating diversity equity programs and pursuing cases against elite universities, The NY Times reports.

 “I think that’s fine,” Harmeet K. Dhillon, the new head of the division, told conservative commentator Glenn Beck. “We don’t want people in the federal government who feel like it’s their pet project to go persecute” police departments, she said. “The job here is to enforce the federal civil rights laws, not woke ideology.”

— The FBI and national security agencies are using polygraphs to identify staff members who have leaked information to the press. The Washington Post quotes one official with a high security clearance saying, “They’re trying to silence those who do not follow the party line.”

— The Trump administration announced that it is investigating whether Harvard University and its Law Review violated civil rights laws when the journal’s editors fast-tracked an article written by a member of a racial minority. Craig Trainor, the Education Department’s acting assistant secretary for civil rights, said in a statement, “Harvard Law Review’s article selection process appears to pick winners and losers on the basis of race, employing a spoils system in which the race of the legal scholar is as, if not more, important than the merit of the submission,” 

— President Trump signed an executive order yesterday directing the Department of Transportation to enforce an English language proficiency requirement for the nation’s truck drivers.

— The President is denouncing the polls, some of which show he has far less than 50 percent approval. He posted, “The Polls from the Fake News are, like the News itself, FAKE! We are doing GREAT, better than ever before.”

OH CANADA: Before Donald Trump started saying that Canada should be the 51^st US state, Canadian conservatives were cruising toward control of parliament  and taking the prime minister’s office. But yesterday the country’s temporary prime Minister Mark Carney convinced the majority of voters that his Liberal party is the one to confront Trump’s trade tariffs and insults.

  The counting was paused until this morning so it is still undetermined whether the Liberals have a full majority to rule without support from smaller parties.

  Trump drove home the final nail in the conservative coffin yesterday morning with this post on his Truth Social: “Good luck to the Great people of Canada. Elect the man who has the strength and wisdom to cut your taxes in half, increase your military power, for free, to the highest level in the World, have your Car, Steel, Aluminum, Lumber, Energy, and all other businesses, QUADRUPLE in size, WITH ZERO TARIFFS OR TAXES, if Canada becomes the cherished 51st. State of the United States of America.”

BLACKOUT: A major power outage of undetermined cause hit Spain and Portugal yesterday, stopping rail transit, turning off traffic lights, closing stores and canceling or delaying air flights. Tens of millions of people across the Iberian Peninsula were left without power, and many of them stranded.

  Later in the day some power returned with  help from Morocco and France.

THE WAR ROOM: Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a three-day ceasefire in Ukraine to commemorate Victory Day, Russia’s defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. So … Putin is celebrating the defeat of an invader by pausing his invasion of Ukraine.

THE SPIN RACK:  Three children ages seven and eight and an 18-year were killed and several others injured yesterday when a car crashed through an after-school center in Chatham, Illinois just south of Springfield. The driver was not injured. Police say it did not appear to be a targeted attack. — The conclave of cardinals to choose a new pope will start on May 7^th, the Vatican says. — The man who snatched the purse of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem charged more than $200 worth of Italian food at a restaurant within the hour. He could have paid cash … the purse had $3,000 in it. —  German police have launched a murder investigation after  bestselling novelist Alexandra Fröhlich was found dead on her houseboat in Hamburg. Police said the cause of death was unclear. — New York State’s budget to be put before the legislature includes an all-day ban on students having cellphones in schools.

BELOW THE FOLD: The White House is marking Donald Trump’s 100^th day in office by lining the driveway with the pictures of 100 allegedly violent illegal immigrants who have been deported.

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