Trump thinks this is a winChina wrote: Thu Mar 20, 2025 10:26 pmHow's that trade war looking now, Donald?
New European Union Plan To Boost Local Arms Production Would Freeze U.S. Out Of Billions
parked in large measure by concerns that the U.S. is aligning itself closer to Russia, receding from its traditional ties with NATO and the stability of U.S. weapons exports, the European Union has created a new initiative to increase defense spending and drastically boost local arms production. The move to ‘buy local’ could effectively freeze the U.S. out of billions of dollars in potential arms sales.
Rankled by U.S. President Donald Trump’s imposing tariffs and repeatedly saying that Canada should become the 51st state, Ottawa is deep into talks about joining this initiative.
The goals of the new “European Defense Readiness 2030” plan were laid out Wednesday in a white paper issued by the alliance. The initiative calls for increasing defense spending, simplifying regulations and streamlining industrial programs. It seeks the creation of an 800 billion Euro ($872 billion) pool of money to boost European arms production. That includes a suggested 1.5% of GDP increase in defense budgets anticipated to raise 650 billion Euros (about $709 billion) and 150 billion Euros ($163 billion) for the new Security Action for Europe (SAFE) loan program “to help countries invest in key defense areas like missile defense, drones, and cyber security,” according to the EU.
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Life in Post Democracy Era: The Trump 2/Elon Dictatatorship
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SWIM
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Trump shipped them to El Salvador. Their families say their only crime was a tattoo.
The immigration judge looked over the crowded courtroom and called his next case: "Jefferson José? Jefferson José?"
No one answered.
Judge Joseph Imburgia again scanned the courtroom buried deep within a sprawling U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in suburban Denver, looking over the rows of men in orange or red detainee clothing. Venezuelan migrant Jefferson José Laya Freites, 33, was due in court for a pending asylum-and-detention hearing.
He wasn't there.
Stepping forward, an attorney with an immigrant rights group told Imburgia that Laya Freites' wife believed he'd been transferred to Texas following a Denver-area traffic stop, and then shipped to a notorious Salvadoran prison. Trump officials recently signed a $6 million detention deal with El Salvador to hold U.S. detainees.
"She saw her husband on video at the Salvadoran prison," attorney Monique Sherman told Imburgia.
The judge turned to federal prosecutor Tanga Bernal for clarification. She said Laya Freites was released to "local authorities." When Imburgia pressed for more details, Bernal said she needed to get permission from her superiors.
"I don't know where he is and he's on the docket today," Imburgia said. "The government needs to show me something about where this individual is."
Across the U.S., people like Laya Freites have been similarly vanishing ― and re-emerging in one of El Salvador's most notorious prisons.
There's little evidence to support the administration's contention that large numbers of the deportees are members of the violent Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua. Reporting by USA TODAY last fall found ICE, the FBI and law enforcement agencies in states with reports of the gang's activity had tallied fewer than 135 members of the gang, while the Trump administration says it deported more than 200 members to El Salvador last week alone.
Click on the link for the full article
The immigration judge looked over the crowded courtroom and called his next case: "Jefferson José? Jefferson José?"
No one answered.
Judge Joseph Imburgia again scanned the courtroom buried deep within a sprawling U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in suburban Denver, looking over the rows of men in orange or red detainee clothing. Venezuelan migrant Jefferson José Laya Freites, 33, was due in court for a pending asylum-and-detention hearing.
He wasn't there.
Stepping forward, an attorney with an immigrant rights group told Imburgia that Laya Freites' wife believed he'd been transferred to Texas following a Denver-area traffic stop, and then shipped to a notorious Salvadoran prison. Trump officials recently signed a $6 million detention deal with El Salvador to hold U.S. detainees.
"She saw her husband on video at the Salvadoran prison," attorney Monique Sherman told Imburgia.
The judge turned to federal prosecutor Tanga Bernal for clarification. She said Laya Freites was released to "local authorities." When Imburgia pressed for more details, Bernal said she needed to get permission from her superiors.
"I don't know where he is and he's on the docket today," Imburgia said. "The government needs to show me something about where this individual is."
Across the U.S., people like Laya Freites have been similarly vanishing ― and re-emerging in one of El Salvador's most notorious prisons.
There's little evidence to support the administration's contention that large numbers of the deportees are members of the violent Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua. Reporting by USA TODAY last fall found ICE, the FBI and law enforcement agencies in states with reports of the gang's activity had tallied fewer than 135 members of the gang, while the Trump administration says it deported more than 200 members to El Salvador last week alone.
Click on the link for the full article
Small Business Administration cutting 43% of staff in latest move to downsize executive branch
The Small Business Administration on Friday said it is cutting more than 40% of its staff as part of the Trump administration's wider effort to shrink the federal bureaucracy.
Roughly 6,500 people, or less than half-a-percent of the entire federal workforce, are employed at the SBA, according to the most recent data available. The agency said in a statement that it will "reduce its workforce by 43%" and said the cuts would save more than $435 million a year by next fiscal year.
Click on the link for the full article
The Small Business Administration on Friday said it is cutting more than 40% of its staff as part of the Trump administration's wider effort to shrink the federal bureaucracy.
Roughly 6,500 people, or less than half-a-percent of the entire federal workforce, are employed at the SBA, according to the most recent data available. The agency said in a statement that it will "reduce its workforce by 43%" and said the cuts would save more than $435 million a year by next fiscal year.
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https://bsky.app/profile/reichlinmelnic ... tm_medium=
WHOA. On March 15, a Cornell PhD student with UK and Gambian citizenship, here on a student visa, filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn Trump's EO aimed at foreign students accused of "antisemitism.
Last night, the DOJ emailed asking him to come to ICE to be detained and put into removal proceedings.
Rural seniors voted for Trump—so naturally he’s screwing them over
“In an effort to limit fraudulent claims, the Social Security Administration will impose tighter identity-proofing measures — which will require millions of recipients and applicants to visit agency field offices rather than interact with the agency over the phone,” the Associated Press reported. “Beginning March 31st, people will no longer be able to verify their identity to the SSA over the phone and those who cannot properly verify their identity over the agency’s ‘my Social Security’ online service, will be required to visit an agency field office in person to complete the verification process, agency leadership told reporters Tuesday.”
To add insult to injury, the Trump administration plans to slash the number of Social Security field offices.
Multibillionaire and Trump co-President Elon Musk, having promised trillions of dollars in government cuts through his so-called Department of Government Efficiency, has finally realized he can’t get there without gutting enormously popular entitlement programs like Medicaid and Social Security. After calling Social Security “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time,” Musk has claimed the program meant to keep senior citizens out of poverty is beset by fraud.
“Most of the federal spending is entitlements. So that’s like the big one to eliminate. That’s the sort of half trillion, maybe $600, $700 billion a year,” Musk told Larry Kudlow on Fox Business.
In reality, a 2024 Inspector General report found $72 billion in “improper payments” over eight years (between 2015-2022), or just $9 billion per year. That represents less than 1% of overall payments distributed during that time frame. If Trump really cared about rooting out that abuse, perhaps he shouldn’t have fired all the inspectors general as soon as he took office, as that was literally their job.
Click on the link for the full article
“In an effort to limit fraudulent claims, the Social Security Administration will impose tighter identity-proofing measures — which will require millions of recipients and applicants to visit agency field offices rather than interact with the agency over the phone,” the Associated Press reported. “Beginning March 31st, people will no longer be able to verify their identity to the SSA over the phone and those who cannot properly verify their identity over the agency’s ‘my Social Security’ online service, will be required to visit an agency field office in person to complete the verification process, agency leadership told reporters Tuesday.”
To add insult to injury, the Trump administration plans to slash the number of Social Security field offices.
Multibillionaire and Trump co-President Elon Musk, having promised trillions of dollars in government cuts through his so-called Department of Government Efficiency, has finally realized he can’t get there without gutting enormously popular entitlement programs like Medicaid and Social Security. After calling Social Security “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time,” Musk has claimed the program meant to keep senior citizens out of poverty is beset by fraud.
“Most of the federal spending is entitlements. So that’s like the big one to eliminate. That’s the sort of half trillion, maybe $600, $700 billion a year,” Musk told Larry Kudlow on Fox Business.
In reality, a 2024 Inspector General report found $72 billion in “improper payments” over eight years (between 2015-2022), or just $9 billion per year. That represents less than 1% of overall payments distributed during that time frame. If Trump really cared about rooting out that abuse, perhaps he shouldn’t have fired all the inspectors general as soon as he took office, as that was literally their job.
Click on the link for the full article
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skinsfan4128
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Federal judge pushes back on acting Social Security head over threat to close agency
Acting Social Security commissioner Leland Dudek threatened Thursday evening to bar Social Security Administration employees from accessing its computer systems in response to a judge’s order blocking the U.S. DOGE Service from accessing sensitive taxpayer data.
Less than 24 hours later — after the judge rejected his argument and the White House intervened — Dudek is saying he was “out of line.”
Dudek initially told news outlets, including in a Friday interview with The Washington Post, that the judge’s decision to bar sensitive data access to “DOGE affiliates” was overly broad and that to comply, he might have to block virtually all SSA employees from accessing the agency’s computer systems. But Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, who issued the order, said in a letter that Dudek’s assertions “were inaccurate.”
“Employees of SSA who are not involved with the DOGE Team or in the work of the DOGE Team are not subject to the Order,” Hollander wrote in the letter on Friday sent to lawyers involved in the case. “ … Moreover, any suggestion that the Order may require the delay or suspension of benefit payments is incorrect.”
In response to Hollander’s letter, Dudek said in a statement that the court clarified its guidance and “therefore, I am not shutting down the agency.”
Hollander issued a two-week temporary restraining order Thursday that prohibits Social Security officials from sharing personally identifiable information with Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service, which has been empowered to carry out cost-cutting across the government.
Click on the link for the full article
Acting Social Security commissioner Leland Dudek threatened Thursday evening to bar Social Security Administration employees from accessing its computer systems in response to a judge’s order blocking the U.S. DOGE Service from accessing sensitive taxpayer data.
Less than 24 hours later — after the judge rejected his argument and the White House intervened — Dudek is saying he was “out of line.”
Dudek initially told news outlets, including in a Friday interview with The Washington Post, that the judge’s decision to bar sensitive data access to “DOGE affiliates” was overly broad and that to comply, he might have to block virtually all SSA employees from accessing the agency’s computer systems. But Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, who issued the order, said in a letter that Dudek’s assertions “were inaccurate.”
“Employees of SSA who are not involved with the DOGE Team or in the work of the DOGE Team are not subject to the Order,” Hollander wrote in the letter on Friday sent to lawyers involved in the case. “ … Moreover, any suggestion that the Order may require the delay or suspension of benefit payments is incorrect.”
In response to Hollander’s letter, Dudek said in a statement that the court clarified its guidance and “therefore, I am not shutting down the agency.”
Hollander issued a two-week temporary restraining order Thursday that prohibits Social Security officials from sharing personally identifiable information with Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service, which has been empowered to carry out cost-cutting across the government.
Click on the link for the full article
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SWIM
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Whenever Trump is out of office musk is definitely in line for some criminal charges. President Trump might be immune but his underlings aren’t and there are so many little known laws and lies to be told that they will 100 percent face charges. Sucks to be living now, but in the future I still have faith that their might be some kind of deliciousness.