Trump's DERP State

toomuchbaloney · Feb 12

https://www.npr.org/2025/02/11/nx-s1-5293258/trump-gsa-budget-cuts-doge

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The specifics of the plans inside GSA, including to halve the costs of programs, contracts and salaries, were described to NPR by two GSA officials who were told about the plans by agency leadership. The officials were not authorized to speak to the press and spoke to NPR on condition of anonymity, fearing reprisal from the Trump administration.

Staffers have been told to expect deep job cuts among the agency's approximately 12,000 employees and the closure of many of its offices around the U.S., the sources said. Those employees who remain are being warned to expect their actions to be surveilled, from their swipes into government facilities to the keystrokes they type on their computers.

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The move is being directed by a Trump political appointee, Josh Gruenbaum, who oversees GSA's Federal Acquisition Service. GSA's budget was $61 billion in the 2024 fiscal year.

The staffing decisions were communicated to some GSA staff during emergency meetings late last week. Staffers are refraining from communicating over email or internal messaging systems for fear of monitoring and retaliation, the GSA officials told NPR.

The cuts at GSA might be a model for how the Trump administration will approach making cuts at other agencies. One of the GSA officials said they were told that the White House would be pursuing similar 50% staff cuts across large parts of the federal government, with limited exceptions.

It's expected that federal employees are concerned about reprisal and retribution from the Trump administration. Trump talks about the value of retribution. How many of the 12000 employees will Trump put on unemployment?

Beerman, BSN · Feb 12

NRSKarenRN said:

The American Project January 29, 2025

Elon Musk Offers Federal Workers an Unauthorized Buyout

The alleged eight-month "deferred resignation" contradicts federal rules....

"Constitutional law attorney and Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley was left bewildered after a federal judge extended a temporary restraining order Monday blocking the Trump administration's buyout offer to federal employees. Turley told "Fox & Friends," Tuesday, that the offer is "perfectly within the wheelhouse of the president."

JONATHAN TURLEY: I think that Trump is on very solid ground with the buyout. I'm still a bit baffled by what the court is doing here. If the presidents are allowed to dictate conditions of employees coming into the office, what they're working on, all of that is part of Article II powers of the president controlling the executive branch. I'm not, even today, certain what the constitutional problem is. You've got 65,000 employees who were told, look, we'll let you stay at home and look for a job as long as you agree to resign and to give a number of months. They've agreed to it, the government's agreed to it. That seems to me to be perfectly within the wheelhouse of the president. So I think he's going to win on that."

https://www.foxnews.com/media/legal-expert-baffled-courts-intruding-significantly-trumps-presidential-authority

Tweety, BSN, RN · Feb 12

The speaker just deflected to Biden's lawlessness as I was passing Fox News. He gave some examples like stident loabs abd covid stuff. No one is going to challenge Trump because Biden did it too.

toomuchbaloney · Feb 12

Tweety said:

The speaker just deflected to Biden's lawlessness as I was passing Fox News. He gave some examples like stident loabs abd covid stuff. No one is going to challenge Trump because Biden did it too.

They aren't going to challenge Trump because they are fascists intent upon fundamentally changing this republic into a an authoritarian dictatorship with centralized power. They will simply use Biden or others as an excuse and distraction.

Beerman, BSN · Feb 12

Tweety said:

The speaker just deflected to Biden's lawlessness as I was passing Fox News. He gave some examples like stident loabs abd covid stuff. No one is going to challenge Trump because Biden did it too.

I know liberals hate it, but nothing is inappropriate about reminding everyone of the hypocrisy of the Democrats.

Biden actually went against the Supreme Court. Trump's "lawlessness" thus far is his administration disagreeing with a lower court that might not have the power to issue the rulings that they have.

Tweety, BSN, RN · Feb 12

That's really petty. Having government employees required to say it is one thing but the rest of us free people can call it by it's traditional name.

Names change and I get it.

Tweety, BSN, RN · Feb 12

toomuchbaloney said:

The DOJ is going to use vague threats of prosecution to force private business to abandon principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion in their hiring. Just like Republicans use vague and poorly written abortion laws to bully and threaten women and providers.

We just had DEI training, to encourage us to treat all coworkers and patients fairly. We are a private company. It should be their chouce. For a party that whined all during covid about freedoms they sure are about restricting freedom. But that's what a facist regime does I guess.

Tweety, BSN, RN · Feb 12

Beerman said:

I know liberals hate it, but nothing is inappropriate about reminding everyone of the hypocrisy....

You sound like TMB, at least you can agree about something.

Actually you know I hate deflection. You know this because I have called people out for years here. When asked about whether Trump was acting within the constitution he answered somewhat but couldn't help himself. Pretty much no one can on both sides. Biden is not relevant to Trump's executive orders.

Lawlessness was my word being dramatic.

toomuchbaloney · Feb 12

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/12/ice-officials-reassigned-deportation

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Two senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officials have been reassigned amid frustration that deportation and arrest numbers were not increasing fast enough to meet Donald Trump's targets.

Russell Hott and Peter Berg, the two highest-ranking members of Ice's enforcement agency, were removed from their positions, the Washington Post first reported, citing three people with knowledge on the moves. Hott was reassigned to Ice's local office in Washington DC, and Berg to St Paul, Minnesota.

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A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin, confirmed the reassignments in a statement to the Post: "Ice needs a culture of accountability that it has been starved of for the past four years. We have a president, DHS secretary, and American people who rightfully demand results, and our Ice leadership will ensure the agency delivers.”

I'm always amused when the administration of the least accountable president promises increased accountability. I wonder if Mr Berg was reassigned to Minnesota as additional punishment.

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Ice has also released detainees as some detention centers exceeded their maximum capacity, much to Trump officials' ire.

To boost figures, Trump officials have issued new arrest quotas, with Ice expected to carry out at least 1,200 to 1,500 arrest a day and 75 arrests a day for Ice field offices, the Post reported. Experts have warned that such strategies will probably lead to the arrest of undocumented people without criminal records.

toomuchbaloney · Feb 12

Tulsi Gabbard is our new Director of Intelligence.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/tulsi-gabbard-russian-connection-dni-trump-syria-b2692244.html

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Even before Gabbard left the Democratic Party, ingratiated herself with Donald Trump and secured his nomination to become director of National Intelligence, she was known as a prolific peddler of Russian propaganda.

In almost every foreign conflict in which Russia had a hand, Gabbard backed Moscow and railed against the US. Her past promotion of Kremlin propaganda has provoked significant opposition on both sides of the aisle to her nomination.

Her journey from anti-war Democrat to Moscow-friendly Maga warrior began in Syria. The devastating conflict was sparked by pro-democracy uprisings in 2011, which were brutally crushed by the Assad regime. It descended into a complex web of factions that drew extremist Islamists from around the world and global powers into the fray.

Tulsi was always dependable for a crazy story about Syria or Assad or Moscow.

https://apnews.com/article/gabbard-trump-intelligence-director-russia-ukraine-syria-20b7a404704efe88aa56a06ce1894f9a

https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/12/10/tulsi-gabbard-dni-russia-syria-views-assad-meeting/

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In early 2017, Gabbard made a secret trip to Syria alongside former congressman Dennis Kucinich, where she met with Assad. Upon her return, Gabbard defended her decision to meet with the Syrian leader, who is thought to be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Syrians, saying that her commitment was to ending the war. "In order for any peace agreement, in order for any possibility of a viable peace agreement to occur, there has to be a conversation with him,” she told CNN.

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Shortly after that meeting, Gabbard said she was "skeptical" of U.S. conclusions that Assad had used chemical weapons against civilians in Khan Shaykhun, citing flawed intelligence that led the United States to invade Iraq in 2003. Though the Trump administration and a joint Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons-U.N. investigation concluded that the Syrian government was behind the attack, Gabbard continued to question its origins while campaigning for president in 2020.

I'm sure it's all fine.

Home Health Columnist / Guide · Feb 13

C-SPAN 2/12/25 video

Attorney General Bondi announces Department of Justice Suing State of New York

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U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announces the Department of Justice is suing the state of New York over illegal immigration: "New York has chosen to prioritize illegal aliens over American citizens. It stops. It stops today.

USA Today 2/12/25

'We're coming after you': Trump administration sues New York state over immigration

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WASHINGTON – Attorney General Pam Bondi said Wednesday that the Justice Department is suing the state of New York and its top officials for prioritizing "illegal aliens over American citizens."

"As you know, we sued Illinois and New York didn't listen. So now you're next," Bondi said.

Bondi, in her first news conference since being confirmed, said "millions" of people "with violent records have flooded into our communities, bringing violence and deadly drugs with them,” and that states like New York with permissive immigration policies were contributing to the problem.

Bondi announced that DOJ sued not only the state of New York but also Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, Attorney General Letitia James and Mark Schroeder, the state's motor vehicles commissioner. Hochul's office didn't immediately return calls for comment....

Crusades · Feb 13

toomuchbaloney said:

Tulsi Gabbard is our new Director of Intelligence.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/tulsi-gabbard-russian-connection-dni-trump-syria-b2692244.html

Tulsi was always dependable for a crazy story about Syria or Assad or Moscow.

https://apnews.com/article/gabbard-trump-intelligence-director-russia-ukraine-syria-20b7a404704efe88aa56a06ce1894f9a

https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/12/10/tulsi-gabbard-dni-russia-syria-views-assad-meeting/

I'm sure it's all fine.

It was fine when she was a Democrat running for a Democrat presidency..

Tulsi is another former Democrat to go to the "dark side". Bewitched by a demented mastermind that brain washed a nation into cult victims with his mental illness and a motive of becoming a fascist dictator.

(Just like last time but for real real this time...)