The Morning Sixpack - April 21, 2025

The Pope died after meeting with VP Vance, Hegseth in more hot water, Justice Alito still pissy about illegal deportations, and Trump still being a dick over Barron not getting into Harvard

Pope Francis, the People’s Pontiff, Dies at 88

Pope Francis, whose humble style and inclusive outreach transformed the Vatican, died at age 88 on April 21, the Vatican announced.

As the first non‑European pontiff in over a millennium, he eschewed papal pomp—rejecting red slippers, riding public minibuses, and mingling with crowds in a humble Fiat—to signal a new, pastoral tone for 1.389 billion Catholics. His death follows years of health struggles, including double pneumonia and mobility issues, yet he persisted in public audiences and Easter celebrations until the end.

Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, Francis was shaped by early encounters with social justice and mercy—traits he carried into the papacy. In that first press conference of March 2013, he quipped, “And a special blessing for your dog, too?” when asked to pray for a guide dog’s family, instantly signaling a break from traditional Vatican formality. His choice to live in a boardinghouse behind a gas station rather than the opulent papal apartment further underscored his commitment to simplicity and solidarity with the poor.

Though he made few formal doctrinal changes, Francis was radical in method: From washing the feet of AIDS patients and prisoners to using Twitter (now X) to communicate directly with the faithful.

He famously declared, “If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?”—a moment that reshaped church discourse on LGBTQ+ outreach.

His encyclicals called pollution a sin and championed the marginalized, even as his nuanced positions—blessing same-sex couples under certain circumstances while upholding church teaching—drew both praise and criticism. His legacy is a papacy marked less by edicts than by mercy, humor, and an open-armed church.

Source: WaPo

I don’t think I have to say this but I will anyway: VP Vance is SO insufferable that his mere presence with Francis on Easter put the Pope over the edge. Just sayin’.

Hegseth’s Second Signal Chat Exposed: Shared Yemen Strike Plans with Family and Inner Circle

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth disclosed detailed operational information about U.S. strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen on March 15 via a privately created Signal group that included his wife, brother, and personal lawyer.

According to people familiar with the chat, he posted flight schedules for the F/A‑18 Hornets—the same attack plans he’d simultaneously shared in an official but misconfigured Signal channel that accidentally included The Atlantic’s editor.

The “Defense | Team Huddle” group, set up by Hegseth in January before his confirmation, was intended for administrative coordination yet routinely included his non–Defense Department wife Jennifer, his brother Phil, and lawyer Tim Parlatore. All accessed the chat on Hegseth’s personal phone. Critics say none had a clear need for real-time targeting data, and the dual disclosures prompted fresh questions about his adherence to security protocols.

Under fire on Capitol Hill and in the Pentagon, Hegseth maintains that “Nobody was texting war plans, and that’s all I have to say about that.” Congressional Democrats—from Senator Tammy Duckworth calling it “singular stupidity” to Senator Jack Reed decrying a “reckless disregard” for protocol—are renewing calls for his removal, while the Pentagon’s acting inspector general has launched a formal review.

Source: NYT

Old “DUI Pete” is on the loose again, probably having been on a months-long bender since celebrating his ascension to the leader of the greatest military of all-time.

Pentagon in Turmoil: Ex‑Hegseth Spokesman Sounds Alarm on “Total Chaos”

John Ullyot, a former top Pentagon spokesman, accused Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth of presiding over “total chaos at the Pentagon” in an explosive op-ed Sunday, warning that the cascade of leaked Yemen strike plans and sudden firings of senior aides could cost Hegseth his job.

Ullyot argued that the rapid turnover and security lapses have become “a major distraction for the president — who deserves better from his senior leadership.”

Ullyot—who left the department after declining a new gig from Hegseth—highlighted recent shake-ups, including the abrupt removals of Hegseth’s chief of staff Joe Kasper, deputy chief Darin Selnick, and senior adviser Dan Caldwell, along with Colin Carroll, the deputy secretary’s chief of staff. He insisted that allegations those aides leaked classified information were baseless and urged accountability at the top.

Despite his loyalty, Ullyot warned that even Hegseth’s fiercest backers must admit the last month has been “a full-blown meltdown at the Pentagon — and it’s becoming a real problem for the administration.” His op-ed, published hours after The New York Times revealed Hegseth shared Yemen strike details via a private Signal chat including his wife and brother, underscores growing bipartisan calls for new leadership at the Defense Department.

Source: NBC News

Alito Decries “Hasty” Midnight Ruling Blocking Migrant Deportations

In a fiery dissent late Saturday, Justice Samuel Alito, joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, lambasted the Supreme Court’s emergency order halting the removal of Venezuelan migrants under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act as “hastily and prematurely” issued.

The unsigned majority decision, handed down around 12:55 a.m., directed that “no member of the putative class of detainees” be deported until further notice, after ACLU lawyers warned the migrants faced imminent, unfair expulsion without judicial review.

The migrants—spuriously accused of ties to violent gangs—were set to be deported over a holiday weekend, prompting a rare, in-the-middle-of-the-night SCOTUS intervention. (I mean, they ARE super old and probably sound asleep!)

The Trump administration has offered no sign it will comply with the Court, as it maintains broad executive authority over immigration and continues deportations of other detainees to El Salvador. The ACLU argued dozens faced removal without a realistic chance to contest the government’s gang-member designation.

Alito blasted the process as unprecedented, writing, “In sum, literally in the middle of the night, the Court issued unprecedented and legally questionable relief without giving the lower courts a chance to rule, without hearing from the opposing party, within eight hours of receiving the application, with dubious factual support for its order, and without providing any explanation for its order.”

Conservatives view the ruling as driven more by haste than law, while some Democrats warn it highlights the Court’s urgent role in checking executive overreach.

Source: Reuters

Here’s the deal: EVERYBODY gets due process. End of story. Full Stop! Don’t like it? GTFO of the country. Seriously.

House Democrats Touch Down in El Salvador to Demand Return of Wrongfully Deported Immigrant

Four House Democrats arrived in El Salvador on April 21 to press for the release and return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident deported after what the Trump administration calls an “administrative error.”

They aim to “pressure” the White House into honoring a Supreme Court order and rectifying what Rep. Robert Garcia called “an illegal kidnapping” of an immigrant who was wrongfully sent back to a Salvadoran prison.

Abrego Garcia, who entered the U.S. undocumented, won a ruling from an immigration judge saying he faced likely persecution if deported. Yet the administration—insisting he belonged to MS‑13, a charge his lawyers deny—still sent him home.

As Rep. Garcia put it, “That is why we’re here—to remind the American people that kidnapping immigrants and deporting them without due process is not how we do things in America.”

The White House maintains it cannot compel El Salvador to release its citizen, and President Nayib Bukele branded the idea “preposterous.”

Congressional Republicans have declined to fund or secure travel for the mission, but the delegation insists the trip is privately financed. But we publicly finance Trump’s shitty golf outings! Got it.

This visit follows a string of high-level publicity stunt visits from Secretary of State Marco Rubio to DHS Barbie Kristi Noem, as well as Trump’s clearly “photoshopped” image of Garcia with an “MS13” tat on his hand (that’s not really there).

Source: NPR

That the US government is fully engaging in human trafficking ought to send chills through your body. This is—until now—unfathomable. At least in my lifetime.

Trump Threatens to Yank Another $1 Billion from Harvard After Letter Leak

The Trump administration is preparing to pull an additional $1 billion in federal health research funding from Harvard University after the school made public a confidential demand letter from the Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism.

Officials had expected to negotiate privately but were “surprised” when Harvard released the full list of intrusive oversight proposals—including federal control over admissions,hiring,g and campus speech—that the university deemed a nonstarter.

Harvard President Alan Garber blasted the demands as inconsistent with genuine collaboration, writing that “the intention is not to work with us to address antisemitism in a cooperative and constructive manner.”

He confirmed in an open letter that Harvard’s legal counsel refused to accept the proposed agreement, positioning the university as a front-line resistor after Columbia quietly complied to recover its own funding.

Within hours of the leak, the White House froze $2.26 billion in existing grants and threatened to challenge Harvard’s tax-exempt status and ability to enroll international students—moves that could drain billions more. The escalation follows months of “good-faith efforts” by Harvard to curb campus antisemitism and underscores a widening rift between the administration’s hard line on higher education and universities’ pushback.

Source: WSJ

Trump is still pissed that Harvard didn’t take Barron. And since when is it okay for the federal government to “weaponize” the IRS and other institutions by seeking vengeance on these universities that will not capitulate to the Trump administration’s stupid and illegal demands?