Jumbo wrote: Thu Feb 20, 2025 11:33 amThe "Don Jr. Exception" Clause.The Evil Genius wrote: Thu Feb 20, 2025 10:00 amI'm guessing cocaine and Adderall aren't part of that campaign?
Life in Post Democracy Era: The Trump 2/Elon Dictatatorship
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The Evil Genius
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SWIM
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Some things guys that I think can help this move along
1) Try to keep double posting to a minimum.
2) posts that contain “facts” that are not supported by sourced information may be deleted at moderators discretion. If you don’t want moderators censoring you, source your “facts” using legitimate sources. The moderator have sole discretion over what a legitimate source is.
3) There is a fine line between giving your opinion and trolling. Moderators have sole discretion on what is trolling vs what is just offering an opinion. The more hyperbole you use the more likely it is you are trolling. Eg trump is a bad president VS Trump is the most dangerous dictator the world has ever faced.
4) This isn’t Twitter. Don’t post about people coping hard or being triggered or whatever new slang for party based freak out is. That adds little value and is just trolling.
5) whining about a moderators decision will result in a ban.
Thanks!
1) Try to keep double posting to a minimum.
2) posts that contain “facts” that are not supported by sourced information may be deleted at moderators discretion. If you don’t want moderators censoring you, source your “facts” using legitimate sources. The moderator have sole discretion over what a legitimate source is.
3) There is a fine line between giving your opinion and trolling. Moderators have sole discretion on what is trolling vs what is just offering an opinion. The more hyperbole you use the more likely it is you are trolling. Eg trump is a bad president VS Trump is the most dangerous dictator the world has ever faced.
4) This isn’t Twitter. Don’t post about people coping hard or being triggered or whatever new slang for party based freak out is. That adds little value and is just trolling.
5) whining about a moderators decision will result in a ban.
Thanks!
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SWIM
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Well, I mean the obvious thing is not tell lies. Don’t say Zelensky is a dictator, don’t say he started the war, don’t say his approval rating is zero percent. Don’t suggest willingness to move our troops out of Eastern Europe.Sarge wrote: Thu Feb 20, 2025 9:09 am. Trump is dealing with the reality that the russian military is there to stay in eastern Ukriane. What would you do differently?
Russia is weak. And Trump himself said you secure peace through strength. Bidens flaw was trickling out the military side too slowly prolonging the war and turning it into a war of attrition that Ukraine was more likely to lose.
If you are going to let the threat of nukes determine your foreign policy you are not a world power and are actively supporting the proliferation of nuclear weapon.
I also wouldn't hold negotiations with only one side. Excluding Ukraine from the negotiations held in Saudi Arabia gives Putin more power than he has (or should have) in negotiations.SWIM wrote: Thu Feb 20, 2025 2:04 pmWell, I mean the obvious thing is not tell lies. Don’t say Zelensky is a dictator, don’t say he started the war, don’t say his approval rating is zero percent. Don’t suggest willingness to move our troops out of Eastern Europe.Sarge wrote: Thu Feb 20, 2025 9:09 am. Trump is dealing with the reality that the russian military is there to stay in eastern Ukriane. What would you do differently?
Russia is weak. And Trump himself said you secure peace through strength. Bidens flaw was trickling out the military side too slowly prolonging the war and turning it into a war of attrition that Ukraine was more likely to lose.
If you are going to let the threat of nukes determine your foreign policy you are not a world power and are actively supporting the proliferation of nuclear weapon.
Last edited by China on Thu Feb 20, 2025 9:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Trump Team Plans Deep Cuts at Office That Funds Recovery From Big Disasters
The Trump administration plans to all but eliminate the office that oversees America’s recovery from the largest disasters, raising questions about how the United States will rebuild from hurricanes, wildfires and other calamities made worse by climate change.
The Office of Community Planning and Development, part of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, pays to rebuild homes and other recovery efforts after the country’s worst disasters, such as Hurricane Helene in North Carolina and Hurricane Milton in Florida.
The administration plans to cut the staff in that office by 84 percent, according to a document obtained by The New York Times. The number of workers would be cut to 150, from 936 when Mr. Trump took office last month.
Those cuts could slow the distribution of recovery money to North Carolina and other recent disasters, depending how quickly they happen.
The primary responsibility for rebuilding communities after major disasters falls to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which helps state and local governments pay to repair or rebuild damaged roads, bridges, schools, water treatment plants and other public infrastructure. The agency also provides money to help repair damaged homes.
But some disasters are so big that they exceed FEMA’s funding, or the damage doesn’t fit neatly within FEMA’s programs. When that happens, Congress can choose to provide additional help, through a program at HUD called the Community Development Block Grant — Disaster Recovery.
That extra help from Congress can involve far greater sums than what FEMA can provide. In 2006, for example, Congress provided almost $17 billion to rebuild the Gulf Coast after Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma. After Hurricane Sandy, Congress gave Housing and Urban Development more than $15 billion to help rebuild the Northeast.
As disasters have grown more frequent and severe, HUD’s disaster recovery program has become central to the country’s strategy for coping with climate change. During the 1990s, Congress typically gave the program a few hundred million dollars a year. Over the past decade, by contrast, Congress has often provided billions or even tens of billions annually.
HUD’s disaster recovery money also comes with fewer strings attached. The money is largely used to rebuild homes that were either uninsured or underinsured, which the Federal Emergency Management Agency does not pay for. It also goes toward rebuilding infrastructure that’s not covered by FEMA, like the private roads and bridges that were significantly damaged by Helene in North Carolina.
The money can also be used for job training, to help workers whose employers went out of business after a disaster.
Because state and local officials are often overwhelmed by a disaster, and because the influx of federal funds is large and quick, one of HUD’s main jobs is ensuring the money isn’t lost to waste, fraud or abuse. That includes tasks like helping state and local governments set up systems to avoid paying contractors twice, according to a former official who worked on the program. It can also mean more complicated tasks like coordinating HUD’s grants with other federal disaster programs.
Click on the link for the full article
Wait until next hurricane season and the people in the red states that voted for Trump will get what they voted for.
The Trump administration plans to all but eliminate the office that oversees America’s recovery from the largest disasters, raising questions about how the United States will rebuild from hurricanes, wildfires and other calamities made worse by climate change.
The Office of Community Planning and Development, part of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, pays to rebuild homes and other recovery efforts after the country’s worst disasters, such as Hurricane Helene in North Carolina and Hurricane Milton in Florida.
The administration plans to cut the staff in that office by 84 percent, according to a document obtained by The New York Times. The number of workers would be cut to 150, from 936 when Mr. Trump took office last month.
Those cuts could slow the distribution of recovery money to North Carolina and other recent disasters, depending how quickly they happen.
The primary responsibility for rebuilding communities after major disasters falls to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which helps state and local governments pay to repair or rebuild damaged roads, bridges, schools, water treatment plants and other public infrastructure. The agency also provides money to help repair damaged homes.
But some disasters are so big that they exceed FEMA’s funding, or the damage doesn’t fit neatly within FEMA’s programs. When that happens, Congress can choose to provide additional help, through a program at HUD called the Community Development Block Grant — Disaster Recovery.
That extra help from Congress can involve far greater sums than what FEMA can provide. In 2006, for example, Congress provided almost $17 billion to rebuild the Gulf Coast after Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma. After Hurricane Sandy, Congress gave Housing and Urban Development more than $15 billion to help rebuild the Northeast.
As disasters have grown more frequent and severe, HUD’s disaster recovery program has become central to the country’s strategy for coping with climate change. During the 1990s, Congress typically gave the program a few hundred million dollars a year. Over the past decade, by contrast, Congress has often provided billions or even tens of billions annually.
HUD’s disaster recovery money also comes with fewer strings attached. The money is largely used to rebuild homes that were either uninsured or underinsured, which the Federal Emergency Management Agency does not pay for. It also goes toward rebuilding infrastructure that’s not covered by FEMA, like the private roads and bridges that were significantly damaged by Helene in North Carolina.
The money can also be used for job training, to help workers whose employers went out of business after a disaster.
Because state and local officials are often overwhelmed by a disaster, and because the influx of federal funds is large and quick, one of HUD’s main jobs is ensuring the money isn’t lost to waste, fraud or abuse. That includes tasks like helping state and local governments set up systems to avoid paying contractors twice, according to a former official who worked on the program. It can also mean more complicated tasks like coordinating HUD’s grants with other federal disaster programs.
Click on the link for the full article
Wait until next hurricane season and the people in the red states that voted for Trump will get what they voted for.
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The Evil Genius
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https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/federal ... =118985384
A precision efficient machine in action. Sig Heil!
A precision efficient machine in action. Sig Heil!
It ain't what you don't know that's a problem. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.~~~Mark Twain
DOGE’s Millions: As Musk and Trump Gut Government, Their Ax-Cutting Agency Gets Cash Infusion
While Elon Musk and his underlings demand budget cuts and layoffs across the federal government, funding for their agency — the Department of Government Efficiency — has soared to nearly $40 million, ProPublica found in a review of Office of Management and Budget records.
Billionaire investor Musk has called DOGE “maximally transparent.” President Donald Trump has said that some 100 people work for the group, but his administration has refused to make information about DOGE’s spending and operations public. In an effort to gain a clearer understanding of DOGE’s inner workings, ProPublica has gathered the names and backgrounds of the people employed there. We’ve identified some 46 people, including 12 new names we are adding to the list today.
Trump and Musk have defended DOGE as a tool for trimming fat from what they see as a bloated bureaucracy. The effects of those cuts have proved crippling, bringing a halt to programs that provided essential services to vulnerable populations across the country and the world.
The top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., told ProPublica she didn’t believe DOGE had the legal authority for the actions it’s taken. She called it a “made-up federal department” that’s wasting taxpayer dollars.
“This unlawful effort is stealing federal funds from American families and businesses,” DeLauro said.
Most of DOGE’s money, records show, has come in the form of payments from other federal agencies made possible by a nearly century-old law called the Economy Act. To steer those funds to the new department, the Trump administration has treated DOGE as if it were a federal agency. And by dispatching members of its staff to other agencies and having those staffers issue edicts about policy and personnel, DOGE has also behaved as if it has agency-level authority.
The use of the Economy Act would seem to subject DOGE to the same open-records laws that cover most federal agencies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency or the State Department. However, DOGE has refused to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests, saying it operates with executive privileges. Musk has also flip-flopped about whether DOGE’s staff members are paid. Initially he said they were not, but earlier this week he said some of them were.
The conflicting stances put the Trump administration in a bind, legal experts say. If DOGE is a federal agency, it can’t shield its records from the public. If it’s not an agency, then DOGE’s tens of millions of dollars in funding weren’t legally allocated and should be returned, some contend.
“The administration can’t have it both ways,” said Adam Grogg, a former deputy general counsel at OMB and now the legal director at Governing for Impact, a left-of-center think tank. “Either it’s an agency covered by FOIA with the authority to do what it’s doing, or it’s purely advising the president and can’t be directing agencies in the way it now is.”
A federal judge presiding over one of the many DOGE-related lawsuits also recently grilled the administration’s lawyers about its conflicting stances. In a recent hearing, U.S. District Judge John Bates characterized the government’s position as “we’re not an agency where we don’t want to be an agency, but we are an agency this one instance where we want to be.”
Click on the link for the full article
While Elon Musk and his underlings demand budget cuts and layoffs across the federal government, funding for their agency — the Department of Government Efficiency — has soared to nearly $40 million, ProPublica found in a review of Office of Management and Budget records.
Billionaire investor Musk has called DOGE “maximally transparent.” President Donald Trump has said that some 100 people work for the group, but his administration has refused to make information about DOGE’s spending and operations public. In an effort to gain a clearer understanding of DOGE’s inner workings, ProPublica has gathered the names and backgrounds of the people employed there. We’ve identified some 46 people, including 12 new names we are adding to the list today.
Trump and Musk have defended DOGE as a tool for trimming fat from what they see as a bloated bureaucracy. The effects of those cuts have proved crippling, bringing a halt to programs that provided essential services to vulnerable populations across the country and the world.
The top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., told ProPublica she didn’t believe DOGE had the legal authority for the actions it’s taken. She called it a “made-up federal department” that’s wasting taxpayer dollars.
“This unlawful effort is stealing federal funds from American families and businesses,” DeLauro said.
Most of DOGE’s money, records show, has come in the form of payments from other federal agencies made possible by a nearly century-old law called the Economy Act. To steer those funds to the new department, the Trump administration has treated DOGE as if it were a federal agency. And by dispatching members of its staff to other agencies and having those staffers issue edicts about policy and personnel, DOGE has also behaved as if it has agency-level authority.
The use of the Economy Act would seem to subject DOGE to the same open-records laws that cover most federal agencies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency or the State Department. However, DOGE has refused to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests, saying it operates with executive privileges. Musk has also flip-flopped about whether DOGE’s staff members are paid. Initially he said they were not, but earlier this week he said some of them were.
The conflicting stances put the Trump administration in a bind, legal experts say. If DOGE is a federal agency, it can’t shield its records from the public. If it’s not an agency, then DOGE’s tens of millions of dollars in funding weren’t legally allocated and should be returned, some contend.
“The administration can’t have it both ways,” said Adam Grogg, a former deputy general counsel at OMB and now the legal director at Governing for Impact, a left-of-center think tank. “Either it’s an agency covered by FOIA with the authority to do what it’s doing, or it’s purely advising the president and can’t be directing agencies in the way it now is.”
A federal judge presiding over one of the many DOGE-related lawsuits also recently grilled the administration’s lawyers about its conflicting stances. In a recent hearing, U.S. District Judge John Bates characterized the government’s position as “we’re not an agency where we don’t want to be an agency, but we are an agency this one instance where we want to be.”
Click on the link for the full article