Well, off we go

[essentialsaltes]

If these EOs look like they could be “troublesome” for a President to adhere to…the honorable thing would be to overrule them.

You mean in a court? To be fair, few EOs reach the level of being court-worthy. The birthright citizenship one will get there. The intention of most of them is "Congress passed this law, and it wasn't very descriptive, so here's how the executive department is going to execute on this stuff."

LBJ says departments need someone to check to make sure contractors are complying with nondiscrimination laws.
Trump has canceled that and says departments need someone to check to make sure contractors do NOT have DEI rules.

 

[Pommer]

You mean in a court? To be fair, few EOs reach the level of being court-worthy. The birthright citizenship one will get there. The intention of most of them is "Congress passed this law, and it wasn't very descriptive, so here's how the executive department is going to execute on this stuff."

No, I mostly meant “rescinding previous POTUS’ EOs”, which an incumbent President is free to do.

LBJ says departments need someone to check to make sure contractors are complying with nondiscrimination laws.
Trump has canceled that and says departments need someone to check to make sure contractors do NOT have DEI rules.

As he’s allowed to do.
Is this a good idea?
Who knows?

 

[essentialsaltes]

Muslims who voted for Trump upset by his pro-Israel cabinet picks​

Pro-Trump Arab American group changes its name after the president’s Gaza ‘Riviera’ comments​

Bishara Bahbah, chairman of the group formerly known as Arab Americans for Trump, said during a phone interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday that the group would now be called Arab Americans for Peace.

Sorry Bishara, he got your vote and that's all he needed from you.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Our long national nightmare is over. God bless you President Trump.

see also

 

[Bradskii]

Our long national nightmare is over. God bless you President Trump.

I'm not normally lost for words...

 

[essentialsaltes]

Venezuelans backed Trump. Now some worry he’ll deport them.​

Venezuelans in the Miami suburb of Doral have been some of Trump’s biggest proponents. Many feel betrayed after he revoked temporary protected status for thousands.

Ronald Bellorin decided to flee Venezuela for the United States during President Donald Trump’s first administration, convinced the Republican leader would protect people like him who had been targeted by an autocratic regime.

Now the university professor is worried the Trump administration is going to deport him. The Department of Homeland Security has canceled the temporary protected status given to [hundreds of] thousands of Venezuelans....

“It’s terrible to feel this way here in the United States.”

“The Venezuelan community gave President Trump their support,” said John De La Vega, a Venezuelan American immigration lawyer and Army veteran. “This is completely different of what I thought it was going to be.”

Perhaps nowhere have Venezuelans put down roots as firmly in the United States as in Doral [where Trump also has a golf course]. Children born in Venezuela or to Venezuelan parents in the United States fill the city’s schools.

Andrea Gabriela Rangel Walther, 29, ... said the overwhelming majority of her friends and family supported Trump — including her father, who is now at risk of being removed from the country. His TPS expires in April.

She knew Trump had vowed to deport immigrants who committed crimes and singled out members of Venezuela’s feared Tren de Aragua gang as initial targets. That was something she agreed with and welcomed. But she didn’t expect Trump to conflate criminals with Venezuelans like her parents and younger brother.

She knew Trump had vowed to deport immigrants who committed crimes and singled out members of Venezuela’s feared Tren de Aragua gang as initial targets. That was something she agreed with and welcomed. But she didn’t expect Trump to conflate criminals with Venezuelans like her parents and younger brother.

“[Trump] knows all Venezuelans aren’t Tren de Aragua.”

The president sent his special missions envoy, Richard Grenell, to meet with Maduro in Caracas in late January. The Trump administration did not address last year’s presidential election in Venezuela — widely considered fraudulent — or Maduro’s arrests of more than 1,700 political prisoners in recent months in its communications about the meeting.

“A photo of a Trump envoy shaking hands with Maduro in the middle of the Miraflores presidential palace? All smiling? It gives legitimacy to an illegitimate government” [Venezuelan journalist Samir] Luzardo said, shaking his head.

 

[A2SG]

Venezuelans backed Trump. Now some worry he’ll deport them.​

Venezuelans in the Miami suburb of Doral have been some of Trump’s biggest proponents. Many feel betrayed after he revoked temporary protected status for thousands.

Ronald Bellorin decided to flee Venezuela for the United States during President Donald Trump’s first administration, convinced the Republican leader would protect people like him who had been targeted by an autocratic regime.

Now the university professor is worried the Trump administration is going to deport him. The Department of Homeland Security has canceled the temporary protected status given to [hundreds of] thousands of Venezuelans....

“It’s terrible to feel this way here in the United States.”

“The Venezuelan community gave President Trump their support,” said John De La Vega, a Venezuelan American immigration lawyer and Army veteran. “This is completely different of what I thought it was going to be.”

Perhaps nowhere have Venezuelans put down roots as firmly in the United States as in Doral [where Trump also has a golf course]. Children born in Venezuela or to Venezuelan parents in the United States fill the city’s schools.

Andrea Gabriela Rangel Walther, 29, ... said the overwhelming majority of her friends and family supported Trump — including her father, who is now at risk of being removed from the country. His TPS expires in April.

She knew Trump had vowed to deport immigrants who committed crimes and singled out members of Venezuela’s feared Tren de Aragua gang as initial targets. That was something she agreed with and welcomed. But she didn’t expect Trump to conflate criminals with Venezuelans like her parents and younger brother.

She knew Trump had vowed to deport immigrants who committed crimes and singled out members of Venezuela’s feared Tren de Aragua gang as initial targets. That was something she agreed with and welcomed. But she didn’t expect Trump to conflate criminals with Venezuelans like her parents and younger brother.

“[Trump] knows all Venezuelans aren’t Tren de Aragua.”

The president sent his special missions envoy, Richard Grenell, to meet with Maduro in Caracas in late January. The Trump administration did not address last year’s presidential election in Venezuela — widely considered fraudulent — or Maduro’s arrests of more than 1,700 political prisoners in recent months in its communications about the meeting.

“A photo of a Trump envoy shaking hands with Maduro in the middle of the Miraflores presidential palace? All smiling? It gives legitimacy to an illegitimate government” [Venezuelan journalist Samir] Luzardo said, shaking his head.

Maybe Venezuelans didn't contribute enough to Trump's inauguration fund.

-- A2SG, gotta pay fealty to Fearless Leader....

 

[CRAZY_CAT_WOMAN]

It's like telling your wife no more manicures while you are trying to pay off her credit cards.

The term "hardship" is subjective.

No, it's not. It's cutting people of medical assistant and much needed programs for the poor. Also making grocery bills a lot more expensive for the poor and middle class.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Is America great again?​

First, I will start by saying that I am a conservative, longtime Republican and believer in the principles that do make America great. I voted for President Trump. But what I have experienced, and what thousands of other former federal employees are going through, is far from great.

I just returned from two-and-a-half years of service with the U.S. Army in some of the most challenging places in Africa, where I worked side by side with other federal agencies, including the Department of State and USAID. We are doing some great things in the world, but I will also be the first to tell you that our country’s spending is out of control.

I saw firsthand the ridiculousness and pressure to spend, and I don’t doubt a single seemingly unimaginable list that has come to light in the last few weeks. I agree change is needed, but is this how a great America goes about making those changes?

At the end of my tour, I looked for the security of a government job with good pay, good benefits ... By a stroke of luck, or so I thought at the time, a position opened with the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service in Champaign.

[leopard attack]

The first thing I did was call my wife. How were we going to pay for the prescriptions she needed? How were we going to pay for the emergency-room visit we had planned because her condition had worsened overnight? As I stood there, I was no longer a federal employee. Was my federal health insurance gone? What about dental insurance? There was no indication that the premiums were being paid from my paycheck, no severance discussed, nothing.

I now did not have access to [HR or] any of the other systems that provided me with vital information about benefits and payroll. Nothing. I had nothing.

I would argue this patently wrong technique was done intentionally, abusing the American system, in that those of us who have fallen victim do not have the means, time or emotional stamina to challenge it. Sometimes, the frustration of the system is too great. Well-played, I guess.

 

[durangodawood]

Is America great again?​

First, I will start by saying that I am a conservative, longtime Republican and believer in the principles that do make America great. I voted for President Trump. But what I have experienced, and what thousands of other former federal employees are going through, is far from great.

I just returned from two-and-a-half years of service with the U.S. Army in some of the most challenging places in Africa, where I worked side by side with other federal agencies, including the Department of State and USAID. We are doing some great things in the world, but I will also be the first to tell you that our country’s spending is out of control.

I saw firsthand the ridiculousness and pressure to spend, and I don’t doubt a single seemingly unimaginable list that has come to light in the last few weeks. I agree change is needed, but is this how a great America goes about making those changes?

At the end of my tour, I looked for the security of a government job with good pay, good benefits ... By a stroke of luck, or so I thought at the time, a position opened with the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service in Champaign.

[leopard attack]

The first thing I did was call my wife. How were we going to pay for the prescriptions she needed? How were we going to pay for the emergency-room visit we had planned because her condition had worsened overnight? As I stood there, I was no longer a federal employee. Was my federal health insurance gone? What about dental insurance? There was no indication that the premiums were being paid from my paycheck, no severance discussed, nothing.

I now did not have access to [HR or] any of the other systems that provided me with vital information about benefits and payroll. Nothing. I had nothing.

I would argue this patently wrong technique was done intentionally, abusing the American system, in that those of us who have fallen victim do not have the means, time or emotional stamina to challenge it. Sometimes, the frustration of the system is too great. Well-played, I guess.

its one thing to reduce the size of the federal workforce by thinking it though, carefully examining where work is duplicated or unnecessary, and then ending peoples employment with the proper care applied.

But this treating people like disposable garbage is pretty sickening.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Jesse Watters Makes On-Air Plea to Trump for Veteran Friend Who Got ‘DOGE’d’ In Pentagon Cuts​

“I finally found one person I knew who got DOGE’d, and it hit me in the heart.”

"a 20-year veteran of the U.S. Military, one of the guys who has killed a lot of bad guys. Put his life on the line. He punched out after 20 years of working for the Pentagon. And he’s only been there a few months, so his probationary period he just found out he’s probably going to get laid off. He’s going to get DOGE’d.”

The host added: “He texted me and said: ‘Jesse, this is not good. I’m really sad. I’m upset.’ This guy is not a DEI consultant. He is not a climate consultant. This guy is a veteran."

He has a face though. And the leopards find that irresistible.

 

[essentialsaltes]

'Chainsaw to a silk rug': Blindsided Trump voter furious after firing​

A disabled military veteran and information technology technician with the Federal Emergency Management Agency said he was blindsided this week when the Trump administration — whom he voted for — informed him of his termination.

"I voted for Donald Trump. But this is not what I was expecting,” he told the outlet. “We didn’t think they were going to take a chainsaw to a silk rug.”

While the man's wife said she recognizes the need for "a lot of cuts, she felt "this is not the one that you think will happen to your family."

 

[mourningdove~]

'Chainsaw to a silk rug': Blindsided Trump voter furious after firing​

A disabled military veteran and information technology technician with the Federal Emergency Management Agency said he was blindsided this week when the Trump administration — whom he voted for — informed him of his termination.

"I voted for Donald Trump. But this is not what I was expecting,” he told the outlet. “We didn’t think they were going to take a chainsaw to a silk rug.”

While the man's wife said she recognizes the need for "a lot of cuts, she felt "this is not the one that you think will happen to your family."

Well, this is unfortunate for this man, but doesn't it show that the Trump administration is being fair, and not showing political favoritism, in its execution of their decisions? I think it does.

 

[Pommer]

Well, this is unfortunate for this man, but doesn't it show that the Trump administration is being fair, and not showing political favoritism, in its execution of their decisions? I think it does.

It’s better that people are being fired because the firings are indiscriminate?
Sure, whatever gets you to tomorrow, I guess.

 

[probinson]

The media finding and reporting on people who regret their decision to vote for Trump feels very reminiscent of when the media was finding and reporting on people in hospitals who regretted their decision to not get vaccinated during COVID. It's an interesting "I-told-you-so" kind of approach. While it might make those doing the reporting feel vindicated, I wouldn't exactly call it an objective and/or effective method of reporting.

 

[essentialsaltes]

The media finding and reporting on people who regret their decision to vote for Trump

It's not clear that any of these recent stories involve any regret.

 

[probinson]

It's not clear that any of these recent stories involve any regret.

Surely you jest....

 

[essentialsaltes]

Surely you jest....

OK, I thought you were talking about the posts in this thread, but you did clearly say media.

 

[Pommer]

The media finding and reporting on people who regret their decision to vote for Trump feels very reminiscent of when the media was finding and reporting on people in hospitals who regretted their decision to not get vaccinated during COVID. It's an interesting "I-told-you-so" kind of approach. While it might make those doing the reporting feel vindicated, I wouldn't exactly call it an objective and/or effective method of reporting.

I agree that the “I-told-you-so” attitude isn’t helpful.
Budding political converts can be pushed right back in to their former in-group and thank their God that they “came back to reality”.

Even though this sort of thing has happened before, it hasn’t happened to any of us in this Nation for eighty-years.
Which way will we go?
Uniformitarianism?
Anarchy?

Golly this is swell!

 

[essentialsaltes]

Steward, who voted for Trump for president in three straight elections, said she believed job cuts would focus on early retirements and workers who underperformed. But she said she lost her job, helping military veterans and others understand their benefits

“Layoffs aren’t easy on anybody. But there has been zero compassion for anything or anyone in this process,” said Steward, who lives and works in Georgia. ”A lot of these federal workers are doing good work. Please just show a little empathy.”

Steward said she had consistently voted as a Democrat but felt that, as a Black woman, the party had taken her vote for granted.

Steward said the Republicans had not focused on some of the issues they emphasized during the campaign, particularly inflation.

“There is still a problem with jobs, having enough higher paying jobs, and bringing down the price of goods and services that normal Americans have to deal with on a day-to-day basis,” Steward said. “There has been nothing done on that. And that’s where I am really upset, probably even more so than losing my job.”