Life in Post Democracy Era: The Trump 2/Elon Dictatatorship

[China]

GOP senator torpedoes Trump’s pick to serve as US attorney for DC

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who faces a tough re-election race in 2026, has informed the White House that he will not support Ed Martin, President Trump’s choice to serve as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, torpedoing the controversial nomination.

Martin is currently serving as the interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia and has coming under strong criticism for helping to organize the “Stop the Steal” movement after the 2020 election and for serving as defense counsel to people charged with Jan. 6-related crimes.

Tillis told reporters Tuesday morning that he will not support Martin’s nomination to remain as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia because of his advocacy for people convicted of Jan. 6-related crimes.

A “no” vote from Tillis kills the nomination because Republicans have a 12-10 majority on the Senate Judiciary Committee and all Democrat on the panel also oppose Martin’s nomination. The nominee could not advance on an 11-11 deadlock.

Martin met with Tillis Monday afternoon in an effort to allay the senators’ concerns, making the argument that many people charged and convicted of Jan. 6-related crimes were over-prosecuted.

But in the end Tillis and Martin couldn’t see eye-to-eye on the 2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol, which forced the evacuation of Senate and House members as they convened to certify Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.

“Most of my concerns relate to Jan. 6,” Tillis said Tuesday. “I think that anybody that breached the perimeter should have been imprisoned for some period of time, whether it’s 30 days or three years is debatable but I have no tolerance for anybody who entered the building on Jan. 6 and that’s probably where most of the friction was.”

Tillis said Martin argued to him that some people who were prosecuted for Jan. 6-related crimes “got caught up” in the crowd that entered the Capitol.

Click on the link for the full article

Well, after Martin crashed and burned, Trump is going back to his favorite TV personalities as a source for staff, seeing as Hegseth has done so well:

Trump appoints Fox News host Jeanine Pirro as top prosecutor in DC

President Donald Trump says he will appoint Fox News host and former prosecutor Jeanine Pirro as interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.

Trump announced the pick in a post on Truth Social.

The selection comes as Trump told reporters in the Oval Office Thursday that Ed Martin, who is currently serving as D.C.'s interim top prosecutor, would not be taking the position permanently after losing support among top Republicans in the Senate.

ABC News had reported earlier that Trump was eyeing Pirro for the position.

The White House did not immediately respond to request for comment from ABC News. A representative for Fox News press relations did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment, nor did Pirro.

Pirro has been a longtime ally of Trump, dating back to her time as a prominent prosecutor in New York. She was an early supporter of his 2016 campaign and publicly defended him during the "Access Hollywood" tape scandal.

Following Trump's loss in the 2020 election, Pirro pushed false allegations of election fraud involving voting machines and was later among the Fox News employees named in the Dominion Voting Systems defamation lawsuit for broadcasting false claims about the company. Fox News eventually settled for $787.5 million and admitted the statements were false.

In 2019, Pirro was reportedly suspended by Fox News after she questioned the loyalty of Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar to the U.S. Constitution, citing Omar's Muslim faith.

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[China]

What is in the UK-US tariff deal?

The UK and the US have reached a deal over tariffs on some goods traded between the countries.

President Donald Trump's blanket 10% tariffs on imports from countries around the world remains in place and still applies to most UK goods entering the US.

But the deal has reduced or removed tariffs on some of the UK's exports, including cars, steel and aluminium.

Here's an at-a-glance look at what's in the deal.

Trump declared on social media this announcement would be a "major trade deal" - it's not.

He does not have the authority to sign the type of free-trade agreement India and the UK finalised earlier this week - this lies with Congress.

Congress would need to approve a trade agreement, which would take longer than the 90-day pause in place on some of Trump's tariffs.

This is an agreement which has reversed or cut some of those tariffs on specific goods.

What was announced today is only the bare bones of a narrow agreement.

There will be months of negotiations and legal paperwork to follow.

Trump had placed import taxes of 25% on cars and car parts coming into the US on top of the existing 2.5%.

This has been cut to 10% for a maximum of 100,000 UK cars, which matches the number of cars the UK exported last year.

But any cars exported above that 100,000 will be subject to a 27.5% import tax.

Cars are the UK's biggest export to the US - worth about £9bn last year.

Car industry leaders have told the BBC the quota could effectively put a ceiling on the number they can export competitively.

The UK currently imposes a 10% on US car imports, but it is not yet clear if there had been any change to this.

The US has previously demanded the import tax be cut to 2.5%, and Chancellor Rachel Reeves has indicated she is open to such a cut.

Trump also announced that Rolls Royce engines and plane parts will be able to be exported from the UK to the US tariff-free.

He also said the UK was buying $10bn worth of Boeing planes from the US.

A 25% tariff on steel and aluminium imports into the US that came into effect in March has been scrapped as part of this deal.

What will be agreed on pharmaceuticals is still unknown.

"Work will continue on the remaining sectors – such as pharmaceuticals and remaining reciprocal tariffs," a statement from the UK government said.

Most countries, including the US, imposed few or no tariffs on finished drugs, as part of an agreement aimed at keeping medicines affordable.

Pharmaceuticals are a major export for the UK when it comes to US trade – last year sales of medicinal and pharmaceutical products were worth £6.6bn ($8.76bn) making it the UK's second-biggest export to the US.

There was no change to the UK's 2% digital services tax on US firms in this deal, despite reports there could be.

The UK has removed tariffs on American beef and other agricultural products, Trump said.

UK farmers have also been given a tariff free quota for 13,000 metric tonnes of exports, which trade ministers said was the "first time" British farmers had been given this kind of deal.

There will be no weakening of UK food standards on imports, the UK government statement said.

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[Simmsy]

[China]

[China]

US will stop tracking the costs of extreme weather fueled by climate change


The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will no longer track the cost of climate change-fueled weather disasters, including floods, heat waves, wildfires and more. It is the latest example of changes to the agency and the Trump administration limiting federal government resources on climate change.

NOAA falls under the U.S. Department of Commerce and is tasked with daily weather forecasts, severe storm warnings and climate monitoring. It is also parent to the National Weather Service.

The agency said its National Centers for Environmental Information would no longer update its Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters database beyond 2024, and that its information — going as far back as 1980 — would be archived.

For decades, it has tracked hundreds of major events across the country, including destructive hurricanes, hail storms, droughts and freezes that have totaled trillions of dollars in damage.

The database uniquely pulls information from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s assistance data, insurance organizations, state agencies and more to estimate overall losses from individual disasters.

NOAA Communications Director Kim Doster said in a statement that the change was “in alignment with evolving priorities, statutory mandates, and staffing changes.”

Scientists say these weather events are becoming increasingly more frequent, costly and severe with climate change. Experts have attributed the growing intensity of recent debilitating heat, Hurricane Milton, the Southern California wildfires and blasts of cold to climate change.

Assessing the impact of weather events fueled by the planet’s warming is key as insurance premiums hike, particularly in communities more prone to flooding, storms and fires. Climate change has wrought havoc on the insurance industry, and homeowners are at risk of skyrocketing rates.

The information is generally seen as standardized and unduplicable, given the agency’s access to nonpublic data, and other private databases would be more limited in scope and likely not shared as widespread for proprietary reasons.

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[China]

DHS Secretary Flouts SCOTUS Order, Says ‘No Scenario’ Where Abrego Garcia Comes Back

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday openly flouted a Supreme Court order to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the U.S., insisting during a Senate committee hearing that there is “no scenario” in which the Maryland man will be in the country again.

In response, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) called her remarks “incredibly chilling for the balance of powers in a democracy.”

Click on the link for the full article

In response the judge should order her in contempt and jailed. Time to stop pussyfooting around.

[Jumbo]

I hate seeing lowlife vapid superficial unethical scum like Krispy Gnome elevated to such high level positions in society. Of course there are an infinite number of far worse examples in human history, but I felt compelled to give her a shout out.

I do love the "Ice Barbie" and "cosplaying" tags.

[Chew]

[The Evil Genius]

Temu Goebbels can shut the fuck up now, please.

[TK]