Living under Trump 2 aka Musk!!!

[China]

[The Evil Genius]

Only the best people.

[NotasLong StillLeft]

Jeff Bezos, the horse you rode in on, and your gold digging chippy!

[NotasLong StillLeft]

Only the best people.

Thought were weren’t allowing criminal immigrants into the USA?

$5M Gold Card?

[The Evil Genius]

Only the best people.

Thought were weren’t allowing criminal immigrants into the USA?

$5M Gold Card?

Think both of them are already American citizens (edit..yep born in DC to American father and English mother). But yeah, he should have been left to rot in jail.

[Dr. Do Itch Big]

This thread gives me anxiety. Jesus Christ it’s so bad.

[China]

Trump’s DOJ Still Hasn’t Publicly Released Jeffrey Epstein Files—What To Know As ‘Phase 1’ Binders Spotted

Bondi told Fox News Wednesday the DOJ plans to release a “lot of flight logs, a lot of names, a lot of information" related to Epstein—who has been accused of sexually abusing more than 100 women, including minors—teasing, “I think tomorrow … you're going to see some Epstein information being released by my office.”

Conservative commentators were spotted at the White House early Thursday afternoon carrying binders labeled “The Epstein Files: Phase 1,” multiple outlets report, though nothing has been directly released from the DOJ to the public yet and it’s unclear what documents the binder contains.

Bondi’s comments follow lawmakers publicly pushing the DOJ to release its Epstein files, with Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., asking Tuesday on X what the status of the Epstein documents was and Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., sending a letter to Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel asking for documents to be “promptly” released.

Democrats have also advocated for information to be made public, with Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., tweeting Tuesday that Bondi “still not releasing the EPSTEIN FILES is weird and raises the question of who she might be protecting,” and the X account for Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats writing, “Pam Bondi is sitting on the Epstein files right now. What’re you waiting for?”—also sharing photos of Epstein and associate Ghislaine Maxwell with President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk (neither have been accused of any wrongdoing).

Bondi said her office’s delay has been due to protecting information about Epstein’s victims, but said Trump gave a “directive” for her to review the documents.

It’s unclear when any documents, including those given to conservative commentators Thursday, will be publicly released, though Fox News reported Thursday afternoon they will be posted online at some point “later today.” Blackburn suggested on Fox News on Thursday the documents released Thursday will only be a “phase one release” with “more to come.”

It’s still unclear what documents the government is releasing, and whether any of them will include information that hasn’t already been made public. Much of the information being teased as part of Thursday’s release, such as flight logs and entries in Maxwell’s black book, have already been made public, though Insider notes there are records the FBI seized from Epstein’s properties in 2019 that have never been released. It’s also not clear whether information in the documents will be redacted beyond protecting victims’ information, though Blackburn has pushed for the government to release full documents without redactions. The Associated Press notes that while the binders seen Thursday were labeled “declassified,” there’s no indication the information being released had ever been labeled as classified. Early reports suggest the release may contain little new evidence and no major “surprises,” with Brown noting on X that information teased to be released on Epstein’s contacts “has been public since 2015.” Brown also reported for The Miami Herald that it’s unclear whether the FBI has ever had any “solid evidence” regarding Epstein’s associates, suggesting there may be few, if any, revelations regarding high-profile figures connected to Epstein.

It’s unclear what documents could be released beyond flight logs reflecting travel on Epstein’s private jet—many of which have already been made public in court filings—though Blackburn requested the release of the government’s “complete, unredacted” files on Epstein, including surveillance footage from Epstein’s Florida residence and any records in Maxwell’s possession, including her “little black book” allegedly containing contact information for Epstein’s associates and victims.

Luna criticized the DOJ’s handling of the document release Thursday, saying she and a House task force on declassifying federal documents had not received any materials from Bondi expressing disappointment about early reporting suggesting the release “will simply be Epstein’s phonebook.” “THIS IS NOT WHAT WE OR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ASKED FOR and a complete disappointment,” Luna wrote on X regarding the initial release of Epstein documents. “GET US THE INFORMATION WE ASKED FOR!”

Click on the link for the full article

Smells like a continued coverup. We probably won't get names until the people involved are all long dead.

Trump directing Bondi to "review the files" sounds like he wants to make sure he's not named before the info comes out.

[China]

She hoped Trump’s victory would change her life, but not like this

Ryleigh Cooper exhaled as she slid onto the couch after nine hours of work for the U.S. Forest Service, still covered in the blue paint she used to mark trees for local loggers. Then she got the text.

“I hate to be the bearer of bad news,” her union leader wrote.

It was the second Thursday in February, and a historic White House purge aimed at federal workers like Cooper was sweeping the country. But the headlines felt far away from her life in rural Michigan. She figured her job, with paychecks totaling about $40,000 a year, would be safe from the cost-cutting campaign led by President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk.

Besides, motherhood was her most pressing concern. Cooper, 24, and her husband were trying to get pregnant, but the doctor said that IVF might be their best chance. Trump had promised to make it free. That is what she thought about in the voting booth.
Now she was staring at her phone, learning that probationary workers in the Forest Service were the next to be fired by his administration. Cooper was likely to be one of them, her union head told her.

Her eyes watered. She knew it wasn’t personal. Every day brought new rumors of cuts, and her performance evaluation from last fall found her “fully successful” — the highest possible score. She reminded herself that she had done everything right: graduated college with a 3.5 GPA, finished her first semester of work toward a master’s degree in forestry with a 4.0, rescued two dogs and two cats from the local shelter, chosen a man who held her on the shower floor when she found out she had endometriosis, a condition that can lead to infertility, and told her, “It’s okay, there is more than one way to be a parent.”

She thought about the Facebook posts she had seen a few days earlier.

“It’s February 3,” her grandmother posted, “and we’re going in the right direction.”

“Any government employee who is afraid of transparency,” wrote the man who taught her AP government class in high school, “is a criminal!”

Cooper knew the people in her life meant well, but she wanted her future to be different from theirs. She had grown up watching her family struggle as her mother lost one job, then another, then another. She was just a few months shy of her graduate degree and close to a promotion that could nearly double her salary. Even $50,000 or $60,000 a year, she thought, could help get her a house a few counties over, with better schools.

For now, she and her husband lived in Baldwin, a village of about 1,000 people where the high school track is made of cracked concrete and weeds. They had purchased their home because it was cheap, less than $150,000, and close to their families, who could help with child care.

It takes three minutes to drive past Baldwin’s one post office, one bar and one bowling alley, which also serves pancakes and omelets for breakfast. The median household income is about $23,000, according to the most recent American Community Survey, putting it among the poorest towns in Michigan. In the winter, locals ice fish from shanties warmed by propane heaters and drive snowmobiles to bars. In the summer, they drive lawn mowers to gas stations, though Cooper said she would never do that.

Most people in Baldwin like Trump; more than 62 percent in Lake County, which includes the town, voted for him in November and in 2020. But people don’t talk about it. Politics here, at least until recently, felt removed from everyday worries.

Now it was in her living room, as she turned to her husband and burst into tears. “I think I’m getting fired,” she said.

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

What’s in Trump’s $1bn plan to bring egg prices down?

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has unveiled a new plan to combat bird flu, the spread of which has created a severe egg shortage and caused egg prices to spike in the US.

While Trump administration officials blamed Biden for causing the egg price hike due to culling policies, the USDA has stated it will continue with the same approach.

“No anticipated changes to our current stamping-out policy at this time,” said Rosemary Sifford, chief veterinary officer for the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, on Wednesday.

However, the agency has announced a $1bn package of plans to tackle the egg shortage from different angles.

In a press release on Wednesday, the USDA said it would spend $500m to boost farms’ biosecurity protocols that protect poultry from catching H5N1 from wild birds, and $400m to reimburse farmers whose flocks have been culled. It also said it would invest $100m to develop new vaccines, treatments and solutions to protect chickens from bird flu and reduce the need to cull them, as well as improve surveillance during outbreaks.

In addition, the USDA says it will look into how to remove burdensome industry regulations that drive up prices, including for back yard poultry keepers, and temporarily import more eggs.

One country that it is turning to is Turkiye, which expects to ship 420 million eggs to the US this year, six times more than last year, according to the Turkish Egg Producers Central Union.

However, this is a small fraction of the US’s total demand, equaling less than a half percent of the 109 billion eggs it produced in the year leading up to November 2024, according to figures from USDA.

The US government has not specified the other countries it hopes to receive more eggs from, but it has historically received some imports from Canada, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and China.

Click on the link for the full article

Import eggs from Canada? Will there be tariffs on those eggs? Or will Canada say no, not unless you reduce tariffs on other sectors?

[The Sisko]

Trump to auction off citizenship via his ‘gold cards’ for $5m to foreigners who create jobs

President Donald Trump announced a new path to U.S. citizenship: a pricey gold card.

The U.S. is going to “sell” gold cards for $5 million, Trump announced in the Oval Office Tuesday.

“We're going to be putting a price on that card of about $5 million and that's going to give you [permanent resident] Green Card privileges, plus it's going to be a route to citizenship,” the president said. He branded it as “somewhat like a Green Card, but at a higher level of sophistication.”

“Wealthy people will be coming into our country by buying this card,” he continued. “They'll be wealthy and they'll be successful and they'll be spending a lot of money and paying a lot of taxes and employing a lot of people. And we think it's going to be extremely successful and never been done before.”

Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick clarified the Trump administration plans to terminate a somewhat similar EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program and “replace it with the Trump gold card.”

Click on the link for the full article

So he thinks trickle down economics works. Got it.

This is clearly a way to bring in his buds from the Russian Mafia, among others, to further populate or perhaps replace the Oligarchs class here.

Yosemite National Park’s Only Locksmith A Victim of Government Layoffs

Yosemite National Park’s only locksmith, Nate Vince, is no longer employed by the federal government, one of many victims of a recent round of federal government layoffs. Vince had completed a four-year apprenticeship at the park and was just three weeks shy of the end of his one-year probationary period. He also lived onsite and was ordered to vacate employee housing.

“Yosemite National Park is the size of Rhode Island and has more locks than a small city, and without a locksmith I’m deeply concerned for the safety and security of the park and people in it. This is not right!” he stated in his Instagram post.

In a Washington Post article, Vince said he was the park’s sole keyholder required him to keep track of the hundreds of keys and locks to the park’s bathrooms, gun safes, administrative buildings and gates.

Click on the link for the full article

If I were him, they’d find those keys all together in one large pile…somewhere in the woods.

Several of us have remarked how scary and depressing all of this is. I feel the same way. In fact, last night Mrs. Sisko and I discussed the possibility of doing something previously unthinkable. I have two years and change left at my job to be pension eligible. She makes way more money than I do and only has about a year and a half at hers to vest so it may make sense for me to quit and move out of the country so we can get our foot in the door in the new place before shit really hits the fan and the exodus begins in earnest. If anyone had told me a decade ago that we’d literally be watching the country dismantled, I’d have thought they were absolutely nuts, but here we are.