Extreme Commanders

There doesn't appear to be a single sector of the Fed that is operating normally. Agencies are asking to be able to communicate with other agencies as they did in the past. The bird flu situation is headed for a national disaster. I read another article (I'll post it below) that is questionning whether killing all birds in a flock is the answer as it is not slowing down the disease.

Lawmakers ask President Trump to restore interagency communications
By Coral Beach on February 26, 2025

Eighty-four members of Congress have written to President Trump expressing concerns about his actions regarding the CDC and USDA that will negatively impact the nation’s ability to ensure that bird flu does not become widespread among people.

United States Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-CT, leads the 83 other lawmakers in the effort to change the president’s mind about measures he has taken that they believe will hamper the U.S. Department of Agruculture’s and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s efforts in containing bird flu, also known as H5N1.

The virus has already infected 70 people and killed one. More than 970 dairy herds in the United States have been infected and the virus has resulted in the culling of more than 157 million commercial poultry.

https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2025/02/ ... nications/

Article about killing entire flocks of birds...
https://www.yahoo.com/news/killing-166- ... 09116.html

And this was inevitable, My son is going to be pissed. He's about 6 months shy of 10 years repayment & government employment.

Trump administration removes application for popular student loan repayment programs
It’s unclear how borrowers enrolled in income-driven repayment plans are supposed to submit annual paperwork certifying their incomes.

The Trump administration has unexpectedly taken down the online application form for several popular student debt repayment plans, baffling borrowers as well as experts who say the decision could create complications for millions of Americans with outstanding loans.

Late on Friday, Department of Education officials quietly removed the application portal for both loan consolidations and income-driven repayment plans, which cap what borrowers must pay each month at a percent of their earnings. The move followed a federal appeals court decision earlier in the week that continued a pause on former President Biden’s SAVE program, an income-driven plan that would have forgiven debts after as few as 10 years of payments.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-ad ... 08394.html

Chew wrote: Wed Feb 26, 2025 12:57 pm

This is all so fucking depressing.

I know. Wife is a Fed and it's been a few rough weeks. Especially with total RTO and cancelation of even limited telework options that existed way before covid (you know, things that made sense in a major Metropolitan area where people live hr+ from actual job sites). I do also wonder how Departments that severely reduced their actual physical blueprint to save money during covid are dealing with total RTO and not having spaces for all the employees.

It's also 100% predictable re: the pain. Anyone who didn't think Trump was going to shit on anyone but his family and the people he owes money too and/or can grift from was in denial.

Trump Suspends Covington Lawyers’ Security Clearances for Working With Jack Smith

President Donald Trump on Tuesday ordered the suspension of any security clearances held by lawyers at a prominent Washington law firm who provided legal services to special counsel Jack Smith, the latest move in the Republican’s campaign of retribution over the criminal investigations that dogged him before he returned to office.

Trump’s memo signed at the White House seeks to punish the law firm Covington & Burling days after it was revealed that the firm provided pro bono legal services to Smith, who charged Trump in two criminal cases that were later dismissed after Trump won back the presidency in November.

Covington & Burling is an international law firm whose current attorneys include former Attorney General Eric Holder and Lanny Breuer, an ex-Justice Department official who in 2010 hired Smith to lead the agency’s Public Integrity Section. The firm had no role in Smith’s investigation of Trump, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the situation.

The firm recently agreed to represent Smith “when it became apparent that he would become subject of a government investigation,” it said in a statement Tuesday.

“Covington serves as defense counsel to Jack Smith in his personal, individual capacity,” a spokesperson for the firm said. “We look forward to defending Mr. Smith’s interests and appreciate the trust he has placed in us to do so.”

Click on the link for the full article

What a small, petty man.

For Trump, 3 court losses in 90 minutes


Three different federal judges delivered legal setbacks and slap downs to President Donald Trump in the span of an hour and a half on Tuesday in a series of cases challenging controversial moves taken during the early days of his second term.

The rulings from judges in Washington, DC, and Washington state are the latest to pump the brakes on Trump’s agenda, underscoring the critical role courts have taken on for foes of Trump looking to frustrate his actions.

In DC, Judge Loren AliKhan issued a preliminary injunction that indefinitely blocks the administration from freezing federal grants and loans. The ruling expands an earlier block the appointee of former President Joe Biden issued last month shortly after the White House ordered the funding freeze.

“In the simplest terms, the freeze was ill-conceived from the beginning. Defendants either wanted to pause up to $3 trillion in federal spending practically overnight, or they expected each federal agency to review every single one of its grants, loans, and funds for compliance in less than twenty-four hours. The breadth of that command is almost unfathomable,” AliKhan wrote in her ruling.

She went on to say that the spending freeze was “irrational, imprudent, and precipitated a nationwide crisis.”

The issue of withholding federal funds has become a major flashpoint during the opening weeks of Trump’s second term, with other pending cases challenging the White House’s decision to suspend all foreign assistance.

Shortly before AliKhan issued her ruling, a separate jurist in the DC federal courthouse – Judge Amir Ali – ordered the Trump administration to pay foreign aid-related money owed to government contractors and nonprofit groups by Wednesday night, amid the legal fight over the freezing of USAID and State Department funds.

That order amounted to a legal reprimand after the plaintiffs in the cases repeatedly accused the administration of not complying with Ali’s earlier temporary restraining order that revived the funding contracts and grants that existed at the end of the Biden administration.

Ali – also a Biden appointee – rebuffed an earlier call by the challengers for the administration to be held in contempt for its alleged non-compliance. But he issued a new order requiring, in more forceful terms, that the government pay money owed to contractors and non-profits for work that had already been completed by the February 13 order.

Meanwhile, across the country in Washington state, a federal judge in Seattle issued a preliminary injunction on Tuesday that halts Trump’s executive order suspending refugee admissions and funding.

Judge Jamal Whitehead, who was also appointed by Biden, said that Trump’s “actions amount to an effective nullification of congressional will in establishing the nation’s refugee admissions program.”

“While the president has substantial discretion to suspend refugee admissions, that authority is not limitless,” the judge said.

Click on the link for the full article

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

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5165 ... ouse-pool/


The head of the White House Correspondents Association (WHCA) says the public can no longer trust pool reports now that the reporters included in the small group will be controlled by President Trump’s team.

“For years the WHCA had created a format for standards, length, accuracy for the American people that they could trust that those standards created by the folks that actually do the work were understood by everyone and you could trust the reports that were coming out of that,” Eugene Daniels, president of the WHCA said during an appearance on MSNBC.

“That can longer be trusted frankly,” he added. “Because at the end of the day, these standards are going to be created by the folks that are being covered.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday announced that the West Wing would decide moving forward which outlets are included in the group covering the president’s daily activities.

They voted for Trump, but now they're losing their U.S. government jobs

They voted for Donald Trump for president and for a change in the direction of the federal government. But this wasn’t the kind of change they had in mind.

Laid off by the administration in recent days from their U.S. government jobs, the Trump voters expressed dismay at what they said has been an unfocused, counterproductive and callous slashing of the federal workforce.

Rather than advancing the efficiency President Trump has said he desires, the fired workers said taxpayers will be losing important services that, for example, helped military veterans cope with financial hardships, searched for drought- and pest-tolerant crops and assured that medical providers got Medicare reimbursements.

Some of the workers are appealing to get their jobs back, while others said they are not sure what to do — deeply discouraged that their attempts at public service appeared to be spurned by the new president and some of the public.

Expand article logo Continue reading
“I was thinking that there would be changes,” said a Department of Agriculture researcher in the mid-Atlantic region who studies drought- and pest-resistant crops. “But instead of being focused, this is just going completely off the rails, chopping and slicing up parts of the government that are protecting Americans.”

The worker — who asked to remain anonymous to increase his chances of regaining his job — said he twice voted for Trump and was disturbed at how much authority over government reductions the president had turned over to his chief cost-cutter, Elon Musk.

Click on the link for the full article

We knew the courts wouldn't save us, just sucks how quickly they jump to Trump's aid or drag their feet when neccessary.

Supreme Court delays deadline for Trump administration to pay $1.9B in foreign aid

The U.S. Supreme Court temporarily delayed a court-mandated deadline requiring the Trump administration to pay nearly $2 billion to contracted aid organizations for work they already completed.

Chief Justice John Roberts, in an order Wednesday night, stayed a lower court order that the administration pay out $1.9 billion by midnight. In his order, Roberts asked the aid groups that sued the Trump administration to provide a response by noon Friday after which the court will decide its next steps.

Roberts' order came after the Trump administration sought emergency intervention by the high court after a panel of federal appeals court judges denied the administration's earlier request to push the deadline.

Well in fairness he was likely drunk.