Month: January 2025

Is This That Camp We Were Warned About?

Back in the days of Obama the idiot Right was using a meme that the admin was going to arrest people and send them to camps run by FEMA….does anyone else remember those days?

Could this be the same thing as their outrageous warning?

Only around 15 people are currently detained at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, but that number could soon be going up 2,000-fold. President Trump signed an executive order Wednesday to prepare a facility to detain 30,000 migrants at the base on Cuba’s south coast, the BBC reports. “We have 30,000 beds in Guantanamo to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people,” Trump said, per AFP. “Some of them are so bad we don’t even trust the countries to hold them, because we don’t want them coming back.”

Trump, speaking after he signed the Laken Riley Act into law at the White House, said the move would double the country’s capacity to hold migrants who are in the US illegally, adding, “it’s a tough place to get out of.” Detaining migrants at Guantanamo Bay is nothing new, but the numbers have generally been very low, CNBC reports. The Guantanamo Migrant Operations Center has a capacity of 130, according to researchers at the Global Detention Project. In February of last year, only four people were held there, the New York Timesreported in a look at the place last fall.

Trump’s order directs officials to bring the facility “to full capacity to provide additional detention space for high-priority criminal aliens unlawfully present in the United States.” Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel slammed the move as “an act of brutality,” the BBC reports. The base itself, he said, is on “illegally occupied territory.”

A good place for Trump to use….the people will be out of sight and in a location that the media is not allowed plus it gives those Marine guards something to do.

I think it would have better used by putting all those traitors from 6 January in prison until their court date.

Again I do not think this is a good thing at all….it is a way to control the narrative something the Trump people are always trying to do for they do not like to answer question on their actions.

We now have our own concentration camp.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

DEI? WTF?

We all have heard about the air tragedy in DC….two planes collided and fell into the Potomac and everyone has died. As usual the world is looking for reasons and answers…..and the most damn absurd reason has come from Trump and his idiot minions and supporters….

President scapegoats diversity and inclusion initiatives while addressing air traffic disaster that left 67 dead

Donald Trump used the plane crash in Washington DC to attack his political enemies, claiming Democrats were responsible for declining standards in air traffic control and that the disaster “could have been” caused by diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies at the Federal Aviation Administration.

Trump turned what might have been a sombre a press conference into a baseless rant against DEI, despite no evidence of a link with the crash at Ronald Reagan Washington National airport, which involved an American Airlines jet and a US military helicopter.

The president was backed by the transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, who said “we can only accept the best and the brightest” in positions affecting passenger safety, and the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, who said: “The era of DEI is gone at the defense department and we need the best and brightest.”

Then came the vice-president, JD Vance, who claimed, “we want to hire the best people … actually competent enough to do the job”, and said without offering evidence that hundreds had sued the US government because “they would like to be air traffic controllers, but they were turned away because of the color of their skin”.

Trump claimed that “very powerful tests” for competence in air traffic control were “terminated” by Joe Biden. He also claimed that when he was president between 2017 and 2021 the US “had a much higher standard [in air traffic control] than anybody else”.

Pressed on his citation of DEI as a cause of the crash, Trump said: “It just could have been.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/30/trump-washington-dc-plane-crash-dei

Dems fault?  This is what morons do when they try to sound intelligent.

DEI?  Seriously?

And this claim will fly around social media and idiots will regurgitate it over and over until it is believe by the mental midgets that support conservs and His Majesty…..

Just when you thought their stupidity was as low as it could go…..BAM!  you have this.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Will This End The War?

On the campaign trail Trump promised that he would end the conflict between Ukraine and Russia and now we have a ‘leaked’ Trump plan to do just that….

Now this is a ‘leaked’ peace proposal from the Trump side and has not been authenticated…..but for the sake of argument I post it….

The Ukrainian news outlet Strana has published leaked details of President Trump’s alleged plan to end the war in Ukraine in 100 days.

According to Newsweek, which said it couldn’t verify if the details were accurate, the plan starts with holding a phone call between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in late January or early February, followed by meetings with both Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in February or March.

The leaked plan calls for a ceasefire to be declared by Easter, which falls on April 20. The truce would involve Ukraine withdrawing troops from Russia’s Kursk Oblast.

Once the ceasefire comes into effect, a peace conference will begin hammering out the details of a lasting agreement. The plan calls for a deal to be reached by May 9.

Once the details of the agreement are released, Ukraine will be instructed to end martial law and mobilization. That would mean Zelensky could lose power since his presidential term expired in May 2024, and he used martial law as the justification for not holding new elections. The plan would require allowing parties who oppose continuing the war with Russia to run for office.

Some of the proposed ideas under the plan for a Russia-Ukraine peace deal include barring Ukraine from joining NATO, an agreement for Ukraine to join the EU by 2030, and the EU facilitating Ukraine’s construction. Ukraine would also be able to keep its military and continue receiving military aid from the US, which could be a non-starter for Moscow.

The proposal would also require Ukraine to cede the territory Russia has captured. Ukraine would have to “refuse military and diplomatic attempts to return the occupied territories” and “officially recognize the sovereignty of the Russian Federation over them.”

Zelensky’s office has denied that the peace plan is authentic, although other media reports have said that Trump tasked his envoy to the conflict, Keith Kellog, with ending the war within the first 100 days of the Trump administration. If the plan is legitimate, leaking it could have been an attempt to sabotage it from moving forward.

Trump has said he wants to speak with Putin, but the Kremlin said on Monday that it hasn’t heard anything from the US about setting up a potential call.

(antiwar.com)

Is this a way to end this thing?

If accurate I do not see this actually working as the conflict stands today……do you?

On a side note:  I agree that Biden should have to tell is what the Ukraine war was all about….

It is no longer easy to tell what the Ukraine War was for. Very early on, U.S. goals got grafted onto Ukrainian goals, and the hybrid braid became hard to disentangle. “This is a war that is in many ways… bigger than Ukraine,” the State Department announced in the first weeks of the war. But, whatever those goals, few of them remain: There will be no NATO membership for Ukraine, there will be no recovery of all of its territory, and there will be no weakening of Russia.

Former President Joe Biden has a lot of explaining to do, as does Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Zelensky will need to explain to his exhausted nation why choosing the path of war over the path of diplomacy after the Istanbul talks in March and April of 2022 was worth the cost. At that time, what still seemed to be the Ukrainian goals—continued sovereignty and the withdrawal of Russian troops to pre-war boundaries—might have been met. Zelensky must explain why he succumbed to Western pressure to pursue wider ones.

He is going to have to explain why pursuing those wider goals was worth the loss of so much life, limb and land. And, if he is to survive politically and, perhaps, even physically, he is going to have to find someone to blame.

Biden Must Explain What the Ukraine War Was For

Probably got ever going to happen but those idiots in Congress have investigated many lame things….why not one more?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

A ‘Patriotic Education’

I keep returning to the days of Obama, the 2010-2012 time frame…..we were warned about Americans being sent to indoctrination camps for those that did not see the country as the Dems did…..and yet the GOP and Herr trump seem to making that dire prediction come true on several levels.

We now have the Trump goons throwing up and attacking education…..this time they want a ‘patriotic education’ for America’s children.

In executive orders signed Wednesday, President Trump mandated changes for American schools that include replacing what he calls radical ideologies with a curriculum of “patriotic education.” One of them calls for cutting federal funding for schools that teach certain topics related to race, sex, gender, or politics, ABC News reports. It’s the first time the federal government has tried to exert such control over curriculum, one expert said. Another directs agencies to use funding to expand school choice through voucher programs. “Too many children do not thrive in their assigned, government-run K-12 school,” the order says, per the New York Times.

  • Teaching: This order gives the secretary of education 90 days to come up with a strategy to end “indoctrination” in K-12 schools, subject to Trump’s approval. There is no education secretary at the moment; confirmation hearings have not been scheduled for the nominee, Linda McMahon, per NPR. The order says it “prohibits federal funding of the indoctrination of children which includes radical gender ideology and critical race theory in the classroom,” per the Hill. It’s not clear what criteria would be used by the Department of Education to identify schools teaching critical race theory. Trump has said American history classes should be rooted in “patriotic education.” The order, which does not say “critical race theory,” says without citing evidence that teachers have been “demanding acquiescence” to concepts of “white privilege” or “unconscious bias.” That has promoted racism, it says, per Reuters.
  • Response: “Whether the federal government can influence curriculum in this way is a completely open question,” said Jonathan Zimmerman, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania. “If they were actually able to compel school districts to alter their curriculum, that would be the first time the federal government had done that. Ever.” Such restrictions imposed at the state level around the country have led to lawsuits.
  • School choice: This order directs the secretaries of education and defense to decide how discretionary grant programs can promote school choice, a goal the president calls “education freedom.” Education Savings Accounts let families to divert per-student public school funding to instead pay expenses involving private schools, micro-schools, or homeschooling. Agencies are to give guidance on how funds can go toward “educational alternatives, including private and faith-based options,” per ABC.
  • Response: Opponents argue that such efforts damage public schools while propping up schools that don’t have to meet state standards for student performance. “Instead of stealing taxpayer money to fund private schools, we should focus on public schools,” said Rebecca Pringle, president of the National Education Association. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, called the plan “likely illegal.”

Indoctrination?

Is that what we now call a well-rounded education?

If the children is ignorant the choice of school will not improve that condition.

The hate of education by some is a pathetic turn of events.

This is just another way to turn Americans into subservient tools….will do nothing to prepare them for the world they must live in later.

Hopefully lawsuits will be forthcoming and possibly a change of direction.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Is This A ‘Death Panel’?

I recall back in the days Obama and his push for healthcare the GOP and its minions of stupid kept on and on on the meme of his ideas would create ‘death panels’ and Americans would pay with their lives.

Does anyone else remember those idiot statements?

Well here is one for the d/bags on the Right….those ‘death panels’ may be back.

Since both Sue and I are fighting cancer I keep an eye on the doings that could be news for others that suffer as well…..and news from the Lord High Executioner’s office is not promising.

… all purchasing is frozen using government purchase cards; researchers cannot submit abstracts to meetings or manuscripts to journals; hiring is stopped entirely for 90 days — though it is unclear if that time frame may change — and all job listings must be pulled down; and of course, no external communications at all, and any activity remotely considered DEI-adjacent is stopped.

It is difficult to overstate the damage this can do to both cancer research and treatment. The NCI has around 3,500 employees, and is the largest cancer research funding body in the world. It supports the dozens of NCI-designated Cancer Centers around the country, and helps coordinate clinical trials across more than 3,000 sites. Though the list of prohibitions didn’t necessarily target them directly, there are reports of canceled appointments for patients set to enter some of those clinical trials.

Across NIH, researchers as well as administrators and support staff are some combination of terrified, angry, and confused. One employee told me they simply didn’t know what to do — meaning, literally how to spend the work day — once the commands to stop all purchasing, travel, and more came down. Another source within a different NIH institute said, “I feel like every time we try to keep things moving, we get another directive to stop.” Another pointed out that this will also affect training the next generation of doctors and researchers — interviewing for the NIH’s Graduate Partnership Program, in which graduate students at other universities work in NIH labs, has been suspended, and if that doesn’t lift within a month or so then there will likely be no such visitors next year.

https://www.splinter.com/trumps-assault-on-nih-will-kill-people-with-cancer

Is this the ‘death panel’ that the GOP warned us about in the past?

Seems to me that there is evidence that it is just that and it is different from the Obama claim because that is examples here and with Obama there was just bullshit.

I will continue to watch and write when something is said or done….our health is important and should not be fucked with in any way by any minor dictator in waiting.

Update:  Trump has rescinded the order for there was a major wave of blow back from states and organizations.

But I look for an end run along the same lines just in different language….he has not given up.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Don’t Worry About Project 2025

The flurry of executive orders signed by Trump in his first hours in the hot seat have come directly from 2025….

Trump claimed he had “nothing to do with Project 2025.”Yet, 16 of the 26 executive orders Trump issued on Day One were cribbed directly from the pages of Project 2025. Here’s a summary of what they do…

Jeffery St. Clair has compiled a list of these EOs….(thank you for saving me the time)….

+  An Executive Order rescinding 78 executive orders issued by President Biden.

+ Prohibits federal agencies from engaging in censorship, and orders an investigation into any federal censorship from the past 4 years.

+ Directs the Attorney General to review and remediate any “weaponization” of the Department of Justice, Securities and Exchange Commission, and Federal Trade Commission over the past 4 years. The National Intelligence Director is directed to do the same for the intelligence community.

+ Orders all federal departments and executive agencies to terminate remote work arrangements and require full-time in-person work.

+ Places a freeze on all federal regulations that are proposed but not yet published in the Federal Register, and postpones for 60 days any that have been published but not yet taken effect.

+ Places a freeze on hiring federal civilian employees and contracting, excepting immigration enforcement, national security, or public safety.

+ Directs all agencies to act to reduce the cost of living, including by expanding the housing supply, reducing unnecessary expenses and requirements that raise costs, and eliminating climate policies that increase the cost of food and fuel.

+ Orders the withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement.

+ Commutes the sentences of 14 people convicted of offenses related to January 6 and otherwise pardons all 1,500 other individuals convicted of crimes related to January 6. Dismisses all pending indictments.

+ Directs the Attorney General not to enforce the TikTok law for 75 days.

+ Orders the withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO).

+ Recategorizes policy-influencing positions in the federal workforce to Schedule F (giving the executive branch greater ability to hire, fire, and manage them).

+ Direct implementation of performance standards and evaluations for career senior executive federal employees.

+ Revokes clearances from 50 former intelligence officials who signed a letter in 2020 discrediting the Hunter Biden laptop story.

+ Declares an emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border and directs National Guard deployment, construction of additional barriers, and use of aerial systems to impede unauthorized physical entry by aliens.

+ Orders the Secretary of Defense to direct the military to repel unlawful mass migration, narcotics trafficking, human smuggling and trafficking, and other criminal activities on the U.S.-Mexico border.

+ Suspends entry of refugees into the United States effective January 27, pending a report within 90 days by the Department of Homeland Security on whether to resume them.

+ Directs the federal government not to recognize U.S. citizenship for persons born in the United States but whose parents are not citizens or lawful permanent residents. Effective 30 days from today, for births on or after that date.

+ Directs implementation of a policy of establishing a physical wall at the U.S.-Mexico border, removal of aliens unlawfully present in the United States, and terminating categorical parole programs (Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans).

+ Authorizes temporary top secret security clearances for 6 months for certain staff designated by the White House Counsel.

+ Directs trade investigations to begin.

+ Orders a review of federal regulations to remove regulatory burdens on oil, natural gas, coal, hydropower, biofuel, critical minerals, and nuclear energy. Revokes 12 Biden climate-related executive orders. Pauses federal funds for building electric vehicle infrastructure.

+ Orders a study on diverting water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to southern California.

+ Directs the Attorney General to seek capital punishment in federal capital crimes, to ensure that the 37 federal death row inmates commuted by Biden are imprisoned in consistent conditions, and supply lethal drugs to states that administer the death penalty.

+ Directs a report within 60 days on federal building standards that reflect classical architectural heritage.

+ Declares a national energy emergency, directing expedited delivery of energy infrastructure.

+ Suspends offshore wind energy projects.

+ Orders a pause on foreign aid disbursements for 90 days to assess programmatic efficiencies and consistency with foreign policy.

And the EOs are only the beginning….

Just wait and see what is next from the Lord High Destroyer…

The quality of life for most Americans will suffer…..but not to worry it will Make America Great Again.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Is FEMA In Danger?

I live in hurricane alley and after a destructive storm like Katrina FEMA was there to try and help the Coast recover…..granted there is a pile of bureaucracy that one must navigate but nonetheless it was a godsend to our recovery.

The new president has hinted that the department could be on the chopping block.

The president went on his first official trip to California and North Carolina two states that is dealing with disasters like storms and wildfires….

In Asheville, North Carolina, Trump reiterated to reporters his plan to sign an executive order to overhaul—and maybe eliminate—the Federal Emergency Management Agency, reports USA Today. “FEMA has been a very big disappointment,” he said, per the AP. “It’s very bureaucratic. And it’s very slow. Other than that, we’re very happy with them.” Trump said he would prefer that states take care of their own disasters. “Whether it’s a Democrat or a Republican governor, you want to use your state to fix it and not waste time calling FEMA,” he said, per CNN.

“FEMA has turned out to be a disaster … I think we recommend that FEMA go away,” he said during a tour of North Carolina to see damage done by Hurricane Helene last year.

In case you are not aware of what FEMA actually does…..

According to the agency’s website, it’s mission is “helping people before, during and after disasters.” The agency says it employs more than 20,000 people and has 10 regional offices nationwide, allowing it to “leverage a tremendous capacity to coordinate within the federal government to make sure America is equipped to prepare for and respond to disasters.”

FEMA was officially created in 1979 through an executive order by President Jimmy Carter, and the agency says its history can be traced as far back as 1803. In 2003, FEMA became part of the Department of Homeland Security.

The agency aims to help people and communities understand and prepare for possible disaster risks, coordinates the federal response to disasters, and supports disaster recovery, according to its website. For more information about what specifically FEMA does and how it operates, you can visit the FEMA website.

Is eliminating FEMA part of the “Make America Great Again”?

If you have never had to deal with the aftermath of a real disaster then you have no damn idea what FEMA does or how it aids people in a crisis.

Like most of Trump’s ideas this is a piss poor one.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

“Forget” The Holocaust?

Yesterday was Holocaust Remembrance Day and I thought I would let all those staunch supporters of Trump and his minions know that their hero has some dicey people in his group…..like Musk who recently has given support to Germany’s far right party and also gave this salute that sent shiver up many spines….but his comments about the Nazi days should send more shivers….

Billionaire enterpreneur Elon Musk insisted at a far-right rally in Germany over the weekend that the European country must move “beyond the past” and leave behind the memory of one of the deadliest genocides in history—but as leaders on the continent marked the 80th anniversary of the Auschwitz concentration camp liberation on Monday, several made clear that Musk’s advice was not welcome.

Musk’s comments on “‘the need to forget German guilt for Nazi crimes’ sounded all too familiar and ominous,” said Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Sunday. “Especially only hours before the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.”

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on the social media platform X, “I couldn’t agree more.”

The country’s ambassador to Israel said that while Musk claimed German children are treated as “guilty of the sins” of the Nazis during World War II, the government simply wants “them to grow up informed and responsible and to apply the lessons of Germany’s past.”

As Common Dreamsreported, the Tesla CEO and key adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump made the remarks at a rally for Alternative for Germany (AfD) on Saturday, five weeks before Germans are set to vote in federal elections.

AfD is currently polling at 19%, trailing the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which is in first place at 28%. But leaders across Europe, including Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Scholz have warned that Musk appears to be angling for the spread of far-right ideologies—including neo-Nazism—in European countries.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/elon-musk-europe

I find it interesting (not so much more like pathetic) that Trump supporters love Israel and all its parts and yet also support a d/bag like Musk who seemingly is a closet Nazi.

Stupid is as stupid votes.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Praying For A Third Term

Most people know that Trump would love to have another shot at the presidency after this 4 years is up….and now a boot licker from Tennessee has tried to get the ball rolling….

The 22nd Amendment is pretty clear: “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.” A GOP congressman from Tennessee, however, wants to tweak those numbers so that a president—Donald Trump, in particular—can run for a third term, reports the Hill.

  • Amendment: Rep. Andy Ogles, part of the House Freedom Caucus, introduced a constitutional amendment on Thursday that would allow a president to run for no more than three terms, with an addition that “no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice” (that last part says “more than once,” not “twice,” in the current incarnation of the 22nd).
  • Ogles’ take: Trump “has proven himself to be the only figure in modern history capable of reversing our nation’s decay and restoring America to greatness, and he must be given the time necessary to accomplish that goal,” Ogles says in a release. “This amendment would allow President Trump to serve three terms, ensuring that we can sustain the bold leadership our nation so desperately needs.”
  • Trump’s take: The president has previously said he wouldn’t push for a third term, though he “joked” about it with GOP lawmakers shortly after he won the 2024 election, telling them, per the Hill: “I suspect I won’t be running again, unless you do something. … Unless you say, ‘He’s so good, we have to just figure it out.'”
  • An Obama vs. Trump matchup? Don’t get too excited that former President Obama could then make a run for his own third term, as that’s not happening in Ogles’ proposal: He’s added in that a president can’t run again “after being elected to two consecutive terms,” meaning the remaining living ex-presidents—Obama, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush—wouldn’t be eligible for Term No. 3.
  • Constitutional commotion: It’s not yet clear how constitutional “originalists” who’ve insisted that the Second Amendment can’t be adjusted for modern times in an effort to stem America’s gun violence would square Ogles’ plan to upend the 22nd Amendment, or Trump’s latest bid to nix birthright citizenship, which would essentially subvert the 14th Amendment.

So far I have seen nothing to show me t5hat the working people were nothing more than a tool for an election….I see no concern for their plight….

I this what the idiots voted for?

Wake up and smell the manure you are being fed.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Accountability Down The Toilet

I have always thought that the government needed more accountability and the inspector general position had the possibility of making it so…..but thanx to special interests and lobbyist cash their reports were issued to blind eyes.

I wrote about another failed War Department audit recently…..

No Accountability

That is sad….but thanx to trump more inspectors have been fired….the number is at least a dozen and includes inspectors general at the departments of State, Agriculture, Interior, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, Education, Labor and Defense, as well as the Small Business Administration, the U.S. Energy Corp., and the Environmental Protection Agency.

President Donald Trump fired multiple independent federal watchdogs, known as inspectors general, in a Friday night purge, removing a significant layer of accountability as he asserts his control over the federal government in his second term, according to two people with knowledge of the dismissals, granted anonymity to share details they were not authorized to speak about publicly.

The ousters set up what will likely be one of Trump’s first major court battles since taking office. At least one of the fired inspectors general — the State Department’s Cardell Richardson Sr. — has told staff he plans to show up to work on Monday, arguing that the firings are illegal, according to a person familiar with the situation who requested anonymity to reveal the internal discussions. A State Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

One of the two people briefed on the dismissals said the number is at least a dozen and includes inspectors general at the departments of State, Agriculture, Interior, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, Education, Labor and Defense, as well as the Small Business Administration, the U.S. Energy Corp., and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Together, those agencies make up large swaths of the federal government, with control over billions of dollars in taxpayer money and broad global reach.

The inspectors general at the Department of Justice, Office of Personnel Management, the Federal Communications Commission, the Export-Import Bank and the Department of Homeland Security remain in place, according to the person.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/01/25/donald-trump-inspectors-general-firing-00200611

Thanks to the Lord High Executioner there will be no one to try and hold these dickheads in check….there will be NO accountability….and billions will be sucked into the coffers of some of the more unscrupulous players.

Is this what you idiots that voted for Trump want?  Then you will bitch about wasted money and try to blame someone who is no longer in power….

Day One plus 7 and I am still waiting for that magic formula to kick in that will Make America Great Again.

And I wait.

You know you people are idiots, right?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”