The Apprentice Season 2 - The Second Presidency of Donald Trump

[Skinypupy]

Heard from a friend today who works at a large agency. She was disapproved for a hardship request regarding the “return to the office” order. She was hired on as full-time telework 5 years ago and lives about 90 minutes (each way) from an office. She cares for her mom who entered home hospice around Thanksgiving. Mom was expected to pass a couple months ago but has been unexpectedly hanging on.

As a result, she now has to retiree from gov service at the end of the month instead of continuing in her role. She can’t afford a full time home nurse and can’t be away from her mom for that long every day.

From the large scale to the small scale, the cruelty is always the point.

[Kraken]

And they love him:

About six-in-ten registered voters who say they have served in the U.S. military or military reserves (61%) support former President Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election, while 37% back Vice President Kamala Harris, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in early September.

Cultists are notoriously resistant to changing their minds based on mere facts, but I gotta think that some of those suckers and losers are gonna get a bad case of buyer's remorse.

[Kurth]

I saw it written in an opinion piece in the NYT this morning, and it’s 100% true: We are entering McCarthy territory.

From a different article:

The executive order denounces what it calls “dishonest and dangerous activity” at Perkins Coie, singling out its hiring of a research firm that led to the compilation of a dossier of unsubstantiated allegations against Mr. Trump related to possible ties between his campaign and Russia. The executive order accused the firm of “undermining democratic elections, the integrity of our courts and honest law enforcement.

He’s attacking entire law firms now. Perkins and Covington aren’t Better Call Saul. These are two of the most prestigious, esteemed firms in the world. No joke: Law firms are going to stop taking cases adverse to Trump. This is a really big deal.

[Blackhawk]

I saw it written in an opinion piece in the NYT this morning, and it’s 100% true: We are entering McCarthy territory.

I realized that when he started suggesting that Federal employees and contractors should begin 'informing' on their coworkers and bosses if they weren't acting in accord with Trump's wishes.

[Isgrimnur]

'An American President Is Not a King': Judge Reinstates Labor Regulator Illegally Fired by Trump

A federal judge on Thursday reinstated Gwynne Wilcox, a Democratic member of the National Labor Relations Board, and suggested that U.S. President Donald Trump's attempt to fire her was an example of the Republican testing how much he can exceed his constitutional powers.

Wilcox filed a federal lawsuit in February, after Trump ousted her and NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo. On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell—who was appointed by former President Barack Obama to serve in the District of Columbia—declared Wilcox's dismissal "unlawful and void."

"The Constitution and case law are clear in allowing Congress to limit the president's removal power and in allowing the courts to enjoin the executive branch from unlawful action," Howell wrote in a 36-page opinion. She also sounded the alarm about arguments made by lawyers for the defendants, Trump and Marvin Kaplan, chair of the NLRB.
...
The judge cited a widely criticized February 19 social media post from the White House, which features an image of Trump in a crown, with text that states, "Long live the king."
...
The president's attempt to fire Wilcox halted federal labor law enforcement in the United States. AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler celebrated Howell's ruling in a Thursday statement, saying that "more than a month after Trump effectively shut down the NLRB by illegally firing Gwynne Wilcox, denying it the quorum it needs to hold union-busters accountable, the court ordered Wilcox immediately returned to her seat, allowing the NLRB to get back to its essential work."

[Victoria Raverna]

The judge forgot that according to the Supreme Court, the president is above the law. He can order Navy Seal to kill Wilcox. Firing her is nothing compare to that.

[El Guapo]

The judge forgot that according to the Supreme Court, the president is above the law. He can order Navy Seal to kill Wilcox. Firing her is nothing compare to that.

It's deeply frustrating to me that this is basically correct.

[Zarathud]

A judge can still enjoin Trump. If he succeeds, he can’t be prosecuted. But if he’s caught, judges can intervene.

[Blackhawk]

I, personally, am not enjoy'n Trump.

[Zarathud]

There are a few people who love Trump. If you’re a real estate developer who wants 100% expensing in year 1, high interest rates and building costs to prevent more rentals from being built, or Israel/Russia to dominate in their wars, you would be happy with Trump. Talked to a guy like that today. After months of unhappy clients.

[LordMortis]

I don't even know where to put these things any more

https://apnews.com/article/dei-purge-im ... 0d49c78074

WASHINGTON (AP) — References to a World War II Medal of Honor recipient, the Enola Gay aircraft that dropped an atomic bomb on Japan and the first women to pass Marine infantry training are among the tens of thousands of photos and online posts marked for deletion as the Defense Department works to purge diversity, equity and inclusion content, according to a database obtained by The Associated Press.

The database, which was confirmed by U.S. officials and published by AP, includes more than 26,000 images that have been flagged for removal across every military branch. But the eventual total could be much higher.

Where are our censorship free speech absolutists?

[Max Peck]

Everything time I see yet another of these stories it confirms my suspicion that these stable tech geniuses are just using something like grep for their anti-woke crusade. Even an early model LLM AI would have enough sense of context to avoid these obvious stumbles.

Some of it, though, probably does entail hands-on meatbag stupidity. Things like nuking medical research funding because "transgenic" looks a lot like "transgender" is probably actual human error (or maybe knee-jerk Luddism). Although... I guess a bad regex could do that as well, so... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[hepcat]

Apparently being laughed at on the transgender mice research thing touched a nerve with ol' orange thin skin himself and he had his people put up a special page on the WH government site to tell everyone it was true.

Note: NONE of these studies involved "making mice transgender" which is what Trump literally said.

[Holman]

Apparently being laughed at on the transgender mice research thing touched a nerve with ol' orange thin skin himself and he had his people put up a special page on the WH government site to tell everyone it was true.

Written in Sharpie, no less.

[RunningMn9]

I don’t understand how whoever wrote that didn’t immediately die of existential embarrassment.

[Smoove_B]

It's critical to maintain the illegitimacy of the trans community, that they're going to double/triple down on transgender mice. People are still convinced children are using litter boxes in schools, so this will be one for the ages as well. Though I'm pretty sure we're not trying to erase children from society. Yet.

[Isgrimnur]

As long as they can still be classified as chattel, everything is fine.

[stessier]

Those experiments seem really useful. I'm always surprised at how much the common person on the street thinks is "known" versus the reality of "this is currently our best guess and we're going to continue trying to better understand it."

[YellowKing]

If the Republicans cared as much about gun violence as they did people's genitalia, we'd never have another school shooting in this country again.

[raydude]

Apparently being laughed at on the transgender mice research thing touched a nerve with ol' orange thin skin himself and he had his people put up a special page on the WH government site to tell everyone it was true.

Note: NONE of these studies involved "making mice transgender" which is what Trump literally said.

I'm no medical researcher, but reading the abstracts one could make the case that the first 4 studies do. However, the last 2 certainly don't, and only explicitly say "transgenic mice". The last study in particular doesn't even seem like its focusing on asthma in transgender women per se, only that

Our findings will determine the molecular basis of hormonal triggers of asthma exacerbations in cis and transgender women and lead to the future development of better personalized therapeutic options for lung disease.

which I think means they believe the results will apply to cis women and btw transgender women as well.

[hepcat]

None of those studies are about turning mice transgender. How would you even begin to determine that?

"Today, the alpha mouse Arnold came out of his nest wearing kulats and sporting a chanel bag."

The studies concern the effects of the drugs on the health of individuals undergoing hormone therapy, how HIV drugs interact with various hormone suppression drugs, etc.. No one is trying to figure out a way "make trans mice". When the trans community wasn't considered an outlaw group that needed to be eradicated because a bunch of conservatives are insecure and are afraid they may fall in love with a trans individual...or that someone will find out they already did, it made sense to study the effects of the drugs used in their lives.

[Isgrimnur]

Culottes. Not to be confused with kulaks.

[hepcat]

Well OBVIOUSLY I don't know how it's spelled. Do I LOOK like a trans mouse to you?

[LawBeefaroni]

They're bating non-MAGA to die on the tansgender hill. It's a convenient distraction while they dismantle our government and completely subvert the Constitution.

You have to just not fight some battles if you want to win the war. Do I think trans rights are important? Absolutely. But losing the war loses all rights for just about anyone not rich, white, male, straight, and Christian. Solve the takeover issue first and then you will have the ability to solve the other ones. Doesn't work the other way.

[Smoove_B]

I mean...yes and no. It's not a coincidence that the goddamn Nazis started with LGBTQ+ folks first. And it's also not surprising that there are plenty of Democrats (politicians and voters) that are willing to throw them under the bus because "there are more important things to focus on". I strongly disagree (if I haven't made that clear elsewhere). Abandoning LGBTQ+ people is not the path forward here. Ever.

[LawBeefaroni]

If the Republicans cared as much about gun violence as they did people's genitalia, we'd never have another school shooting in this country again.

Oh, they care. I bet they jerk off thinking about gun violence almost as much as they do thinking about trans children. But only one of those is the root of their self-loathing so they have to massively overcompensate

[LawBeefaroni]

I mean...yes and no. It's not a coincidence that the goddamn Nazis started with LGBTQ+ folks first. And it's also not surprising that there are plenty of Democrats (politicians and voters) that are willing to throw them under the bus because "there are more important things to focus on". I strongly disagree (if I haven't made that clear elsewhere). Abandoning LGBTQ+ people is not the path forward here. Ever.

Not abandoning them. Just don't take the bait. The fight against this administration is always a fight for LGBTQ+. A fight for LGBTQ+ isn't always a fight against this administration.

This particular incident shouldn't be framed as a trans issue. It should be framed as Goebbels level propaganda and outright lies straight from the White House.

This is all-hands-on-deck time. Again.
Not going to be many, if any, more opportunities. We see how well the supposed opposition handled the 2020 campaign. Fracture, in-fight, take all the bait.

[Alefroth]

Apparently being laughed at on the transgender mice research thing touched a nerve with ol' orange thin skin himself and he had his people put up a special page on the WH government site to tell everyone it was true.

Note: NONE of these studies involved "making mice transgender" which is what Trump literally said.

I'm no medical researcher, but reading the abstracts one could make the case that the first 4 studies do. However, the last 2 certainly don't, and only explicitly say "transgenic mice". The last study in particular doesn't even seem like its focusing on asthma in transgender women per se, only that

Do mice even have gender identity?

[hepcat]

There have been studies that indicate they do.

[Rumpy]

Haha, yeah that thing about the trangendered mice made me laugh. It had to be something else, surely! And this is why you need fact-checkers. And technically, I wonder if this would be considered a Freudian slip.

Either way, someone think of the mice! They have rights too!

I don't even know where to put these things any more

https://apnews.com/article/dei-purge-im ... 0d49c78074

WASHINGTON (AP) — References to a World War II Medal of Honor recipient, the Enola Gay aircraft that dropped an atomic bomb on Japan and the first women to pass Marine infantry training are among the tens of thousands of photos and online posts marked for deletion as the Defense Department works to purge diversity, equity and inclusion content, according to a database obtained by The Associated Press.

The database, which was confirmed by U.S. officials and published by AP, includes more than 26,000 images that have been flagged for removal across every military branch. But the eventual total could be much higher.

Where are our censorship free speech absolutists?

Next up, they'll dismantle the Department of Transportation for having the word 'trans' in the title. Or at the very least rename it to the 'Department of Vehicular Motion'.

[Smoove_B]

Who knew eggs were so fragile?

President Donald Trump's administration has been trying to import large quantities of eggs from overseas to make up for the loss of eggs that has occurred while American farms struggle to contain bird flu.

However, Bloomberg reports that the administration has been flailing in its efforts so far given the logistic challenges in importing a fragile agricultural product with a limited shelf life.

...

“It’s a very local industry,” Mulder explained. “If you want to rebalance the market, you need big volumes. It’s almost impossible, in the short term, to do that.”

Bloomberg notes that the United States will have to import between 70 million to 100 million eggs in the next month to make up the current gap produced by eggs lost to bird flu.

As a reminder (for those that forgot) the plan was to import eggs from Turkey:

"Turkey, which plans to sell 15,000 tons to the US through July, recently added an export tax to control local prices," reports Bloomberg. "The country is also dealing with bird flu outbreaks, and eggs are important during the ongoing holy month of Ramadan when families often gather for large meals after a day of fasting."

Maybe DOGE will step in to help with inefficient use of federal money. Any day now, I'm sure.

[Enough]

Trump is canceling $400 million in contracts/grants for Columbia Uni, guess we now know what that tweet was about. Dark, dark timeline.

[Holman]

Next up, they'll dismantle the Department of Transportation for having the word 'trans' in the title. Or at the very least rename it to the 'Department of Vehicular Motion'.

The Pentagon's anti-DEI team just flagged a set of images for removal. Some of them are pictures of the the plane that bombed Hiroshima, the B-29 Enola Gay.

They're just Ctrl-F/Ctrl-Xing the whole government.

[Alefroth]

There have been studies that indicate they do.

[$iljanus]

Next up, they'll dismantle the Department of Transportation for having the word 'trans' in the title. Or at the very least rename it to the 'Department of Vehicular Motion'.

The Pentagon's anti-DEI team just flagged a set of images for removal. Some of them are pictures of the the plane that bombed Hiroshima, the B-29 Enola Gay.

They're just Ctrl-F/Ctrl-Xing the whole government.

I wonder if George Gay will survive the purge. I know about him from the original Midway movie.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_H._Gay_Jr.

[Rumpy]

Next up, they'll dismantle the Department of Transportation for having the word 'trans' in the title. Or at the very least rename it to the 'Department of Vehicular Motion'.

The Pentagon's anti-DEI team just flagged a set of images for removal. Some of them are pictures of the the plane that bombed Hiroshima, the B-29 Enola Gay.

They're just Ctrl-F/Ctrl-Xing the whole government.

Yeah, I know, that's what I responding to? Hence the joke I made...

[Holman]

Next up, they'll dismantle the Department of Transportation for having the word 'trans' in the title. Or at the very least rename it to the 'Department of Vehicular Motion'.

The Pentagon's anti-DEI team just flagged a set of images for removal. Some of them are pictures of the the plane that bombed Hiroshima, the B-29 Enola Gay.

They're just Ctrl-F/Ctrl-Xing the whole government.

Yeah, I know, that's what I responding to? Hence the joke I made...

Ack! I completely blinked on what you were responding to!

[LawBeefaroni]

Next up, they'll dismantle the Department of Transportation for having the word 'trans' in the title. Or at the very least rename it to the 'Department of Vehicular Motion'.

Find: "trans"
Replace with: "de"

[Smoove_B]

Is it too early for polls?

“While Trump’s favorability rating barely moved since last month, his overall job approval rating took a little hit since February, largely as a result of Republican approval ‘falling’ from 86-10% approval last month to 78-20% approval this month,” Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg said. “His approval rating also fell in the downstate suburbs, from 58-41% last month to 46-51% today.”

That’s a 22-point swing in the downstate suburbs, and political analyst Tom Watson says those numbers are “still moving” in a bad direction.

Some of the finer points:

“Trump’s overall job approval rating may be 13 points underwater, and he gets similar negative grades for unifying Americans, enhancing America’s reputation abroad, and reducing the cost of living, but a majority of voters approve of the job he’s doing to combat the flow of fentanyl into the US,” Greenberg said.

“Voters are evenly divided on whether they approve or disapprove of Trump’s actions to fix the country’s immigration system. “Democrats disapprove of the job Trump is doing on each of these issues and three-quarters or more of Republicans approve of the job he’s doing on each issue,” Greenberg said. “Independents approve of the job Trump is doing on six of the issues and they are closely divided on two others — unifying Americans and enhancing America’s reputation.”

There are those mythical "Independents" again. I don't exactly know how these polls translate into action, but it certainly hasn't impacted his ability to golf every weekend since being elected.

[waitingtoconnect]

Market is tanking on all fronts. Question is if panic starts to set in and a bloodbath is unleashed.

Tesla shares are down 38% this year. So thats something at least. And I got out of shares in January before Trump except for 10% . My retirement fund is locked into stocks though: so im watching that with concern.

I’m trying to sell my family home (bad memories in the wake of my family tragedy)