Extreme Commanders

SWIM wrote: Fri Feb 28, 2025 5:02 pm

President Vance would be much worse.

Only in terms of what he wants to do but Vance won’t have support of MAGA, so he wouldn’t get the gop congress to do everything he wants.

Only way he becomes president, Trump dies. I don’t see Vance winning a 28 primary.

Emir of Schmoe wrote: Sat Mar 01, 2025 6:11 pm

More!!!

88Commanders00 wrote: Sat Mar 01, 2025 7:18 pm

SWIM wrote: Fri Feb 28, 2025 5:02 pm

President Vance would be much worse.

Only in terms of what he wants to do but Vance won’t have support of MAGA, so he wouldn’t get the gop congress to do everything he wants.

Only way he becomes president, Trump dies. I don’t see Vance winning a 28 primary.

Yeah, I was just saying that even in the event that Trump dies, there is little hope for a return to dignity.



If Trump does die I don’t see why he wouldn’t have the support of maga…

US auto industry could be collateral damage in Trump’s trade wars

President Donald Trump’s trade wars threaten to claim a casualty on the home front: the American auto industry.

If the president goes ahead with 25% taxes on imports from Canada and Mexico on Tuesday, he will disrupt more than $300 billion in annual U.S. automotive trade with its two neighbors, wreck supply chains that have been operating for decades and likely push up the already-forbidding price of new cars.

The tariffs pose an “existential’’ threat to North American auto production, said David Gantz, a fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. They will push up “the cost of everything that’s imported from Mexico or Canada that goes into a car assembled in the U.S.’’

Kelley Blue Book says Trump’s tariffs could raise the U.S. price of the average new car – already approaching $49,000 – by $3,000 or more. The price of some full-size pickup trucks could shoot up by $10,000.

The economic pain would intensify if Canada and Mexico counterpunched with tariffs on American exports.

“The economic impact of a sustained 25% tariff on Canada and Mexico would be severe, with full tit-for-tat retaliation likely to push Canada and Mexico into a recession and the U.S. to a point of stagnant growth,’’ Andrew Foran of TD Economics wrote. Foran estimates that 25% tariffs would push down auto sales by 13.6% a year in Canada and 10.6% in the United States.

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Donald Trump 'pardon bid' for jailed British socialite and sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell

Ghislaine Maxwell is considering seeking a presidential pardon from her old pal Donald Trump.

Those close to the jailed British socialite believe their long friendship could help set her free. Maxwell got 20 years in June 2022 for grooming and trafficking underage girls for her former boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein – who was also a friend of Trump.

The idea of a pardon was initially floated by a fellow inmate inside the Florida prison where she is being held but has since been embraced by her friends and family. “Given how many pardons Trump has issued in the weeks since being back in power, those in Ghislaine clique joked she should push for one,” a prison source said.

“They all know how close she once was to him. She tells people often enough. But what started out as a tongue-in-cheek comment has gained momentum, and now friends on the outside are asking what has she to lose. She has maintained loyalty to Trump not telling anyone about his friendship with her and Jeffrey. And we all know how he rewards people who are loyal to him.”

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'Treasonous': Trump investigates public media reporters for criticizing his administration

Several journalists employed by an outlet funded by the U.S. government have found themselves in President Donald Trump's crosshairs, according to a new report.

In a Friday article, the New York Times reported that one longtime journalist at Voice of America (VOA) — which is funded by Congress through the U.S. Agency for Global Media (AGM) — had been put on an extended "excused absence" pending a human resources investigation following a tweet flagged by Trump advisor Richard Grenell. VOA chief national correspondent Steve Herman said the investigation was meant to determine whether his "social media activity has undermined VOA's audiences’ perceptions of the objectivity and/or credibility of VOA and its news operations."

In the tweet, Herman quoted a nonprofit leader who criticized Trump's cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development as making Americans "less safe at home and abroad." Grenell called Herman's tweet "treasonous."

“You don’t get to work against the official U.S. government policies while being paid by US taxpayers,” said Grenell, who is officially the Special Presidential Envoy for Special Missions. “You should be immediately fired.”

According to the Times, Herman was then called into a meeting with VOA's human resources department, who forced him to acknowledge he had "improperly engaged in speculation and analysis." In addition to Herman, two other VOA journalists told the paper that they had also received "blowback" for similar comments. Employees are now raising their concerns about the investigations to VOA director Michael Abramowitz. They believe the investigations have a chilling effect on their reporting on the administration, which is meant to be independent of political influence.

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Trump administration retreats in fight against Russian cyber threats

The Trump administration has publicly and privately signaled that it does not believe Russia represents a cyber threat against US national security or critical infrastructure, marking a radical departure from longstanding intelligence assessments.

The shift in policy could make the US vulnerable to hacking attacks by Russia, experts warned, and appeared to reflect the warming of relations between Donald Trump and Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin.

Two recent incidents indicate the US is no longer characterizing Russia as a cybersecurity threat.

Liesyl Franz, deputy assistant secretary for international cybersecurity at the state department, said in a speech last week before a United Nations working group on cybersecurity that the US was concerned by threats perpetrated by some states but only named China and Iran, with no mention of Russia in her remarks. Franz also did not mention the Russia-based LockBit ransomware group, which the US has previously said is the most prolific ransomware group in the world and has been called out in UN forums in the past. The treasury last year said LockBit operates on a ransomeware-as-service model, in which the group licenses its ransomware software to criminals in exchange for a portion of the paid ransoms.

In contrast to Franz’s statement, representatives for US allies in the European Union and the UK focused their remarks on the threat posed by Moscow, with the UK pointing out that Russia was using offensive and malicious cyber-attacks against Ukraine alongside its illegal invasion.

“It’s incomprehensible to give a speech about threats in cyberspace and not mention Russia and it’s delusional to think this will turn Russia and the FSB [the Russian security agency] into our friends,” said James Lewis, a veteran cyber expert formerly of the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington. “They hate the US and are still mad about losing the cold war. Pretending otherwise won’t change this.”

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In related news...

Exclusive: Hegseth orders Cyber Command to stand down on Russia planning

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last week ordered U.S. Cyber Command to stand down from all planning against Russia, including offensive digital actions, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Hegseth gave the instruction to Cyber Command chief Gen. Timothy Haugh, who then informed the organization's outgoing director of operations, Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Ryan Heritage, of the new guidance, according to these people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity.

The order does not apply to the National Security Agency, which Haugh also leads, or its signals intelligence work targeting Russia, the sources said.

While the full scope of Hegseth’s directive to the command remains unclear, it is more evidence of the White House’s efforts to normalize ties with Moscow after the U.S. and international allies worked to isolate the Kremlin over its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

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Emir of Schmoe wrote: Fri Feb 28, 2025 6:35 am

Mass firings across NOAA and National Weather Service ignite fury among scientists worldwide

As federal job eliminations struck the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service on Thursday, scientists and environmental advocates denounced the cuts, saying they could cause real harm to Americans.

The full extent of the layoffs across NOAA were not immediately clear, but Democratic legislators said hundreds of scientists and experts had been notified of terminated employment. NOAA — which includes the National Hurricane Center and the Tsunami Warning Center — is the latest in a string of federal agencies targeted for cuts by billionaire Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency.

“Musk’s sham mission is bringing vital programs to a screeching halt," Rep. Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael), the ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, wrote in a statement Thursday. "People nationwide depend on NOAA for free, accurate forecasts, severe weather alerts, and emergency information. Purging the government of scientists, experts, and career civil servants and slashing fundamental programs will cost lives."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/mass-firings ... 05929.html

'People will die because of this': Meteorologists warn of consequences of latest cuts

Many staffers from the National Weather Service (NWS) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) received notice of termination on Thursday and Friday as part of the ongoing slashing of the federal government.

When he came into office, President Donald Trump created the "Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)" by executive order. That initiative has been behind the upheaval and dismantling of government agencies. Websites, grants, programs, and employees have all been cut or frozen.

Trump tasked billionaire Elon Musk to run the program, which began with eliminating any jobs for those in their probationary period of the positions.

On Friday, NBC's White House correspondent Aaron Gilchrist cited an administration official who said about 600 people had been cut. The administration also claimed that no critical staff were among them.

Those inside NOAA posted on X that there are more than 1,000. Unlike other federal agencies, NOAA and the NWS operate on a 24/7 basis, according to their website.

Firing probationary jobs implies that these are all low-level employees, but one meteorologist said that's not entirely accurate.

"All probationary federal employees at NOAA’s EMC that’s responsible for keeping all US weather model systems running have been fired with 1 hours notice. And that includes me and colleagues. We will not go quietly because we care about the NOAA mission to protect the public," said a self-described "weather model nerd" who worked at NOAA and goes by Dr. Larissa on BlueSky.

Andy Hazelton, a physical scientist at NWS, noted that NOAA differs from many other federal agencies in terms of sharing staff with educational institutions. Thus, a staffer who worked at a university for years on NOAA programs could have recently moved to NOAA.

"I wanted to specify a detail that I think is relevant from some conversations I've had," Hazelton said. "Most of us (at least at EMC) who were terminated were officially 'probationary' because we are new federal employees, but have been working for NOAA in some capacity (usually on the contract or university side) for 5, 10, 15 years."

Among the false claims in "Project 2025" is the claim: "Each day, Americans rely on weather forecasts and warnings provided by local radio stations and colleges that are produced not by the NWS, but by private companies such as AccuWeather."

Meteorologists explained that this isn't accurate because the private sector isn't gathering their own data. So, local meteorologists who get forecasts wrong or weather apps aren't inventing their own information. They're interpreting existing NWS data.

WFMY News 2 chief meteorologist Tim Buckley posted on X, "Put in tv terms, when we show you current temps / winds / radar it’s from the NWS. When we cover tornado warnings, they come from NWS. Sure we make our own forecasts, but the US weather models are maintained by NOAA / NWS. Nobody is a good weather forecaster without good data."

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