Day: February 20, 2025

No More Independent Agencies

Within the US government there are independent agencies that report without interference from the Executive Branch….agencies like…

For more the list can be found here….https://pitt.libguides.com/usgovinfo/independentagencies

But first what are these agencies purpose?

Independent agencies of the United States federal government are those agencies that exist outside of the federal executive branch . More specifically, the term is used to describe agencies that, while constitutionally part of the executive branch, are independent of presidential control, usually because the president’s power to dismiss the agency head or a member is limited.

I throw this at you because our dear slightly rotund leader has used his smoking Sharpie again…..

President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed a sweeping executive order bringing independent agencies under the control of the White House — an action that would greatly expand his power but is likely to attract significant legal challenges.

It represents Trump’s latest attempt to consolidate power beyond boundaries other presidents have observed and to test the so-called unitary executive theory, which states that the president has the sole authority over the executive branch. And it reflects the influence of Russ Vought, Trump’s budget chief, one of several conservatives in his orbit who have called for axing independent arms of the executive branch.

The theory was long considered fringe, and many mainstream legal scholars still believe it is illegal, given that Congress set the agencies up specifically to act independently, or semi-independently, from the president. These include the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission, all of which enact regulations and can impose hefty fines on businesses that violate the rules.

The order would take that independence away by granting Vought, who reports to Trump, supervising power.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/18/trump-order-power-independent-agencies-00204798

Just another attempt to give myself dictatorial powers.

The basics of his newest EO….

The new executive order, titled “Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies,” laments that previous administrations “have allowed so-called ‘independent regulatory agencies’ to operate with minimal presidential supervision” and states that, going forward, “the president and the attorney general, subject to the president’s supervision and control, shall provide authoritative interpretations of law for the executive branch.”

The order goes on to require that “all executive departments and agencies”—including those granted some independence from the presidency by Congress—”shall submit for review all proposed and final significant regulatory actions to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) within the Executive Office of the President before publication in the Federal Register.”

(commondreams.org)

Just another plank in Project 2025 is being cleared….

The order would essentially put independent agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Communications Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission under the watch of Office of Management and Budget Review Director Russell Vought, a key Project 2025 author.

OIRA is part of the Office of Management and Budget, which is run by Project 2025 architect and far-right extremist Russell Vought.

In a fact sheet released alongside the order, the White House specifically names the FTC, the SEC, and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as agencies it claims have “exercised enormous power over the American people without presidential oversight.”

(msnbc.com)

You were warned about Project 2025 and few heeded the call….and now we all are paying for your laziness.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Slip Sliding Away

It has been a month of Little Donny and his magic Sharpie signing EO after EO after EO after….and so far not much in the way of making life better for us peasants….and that is having a effect….

President Trump’s approval rating has slipped since his first week in office, down 2 percentage points to 45%, a Gallup poll released Wednesday found. At this point, 51% of respondents disapprove of his job performance. Trump’s approval rating is running 15 points below the mid-February average of all other elected presidents since 1953, the New York Times reports, though it’s 5 points above where he was in February 2017. Two other polls released this week showed Trump ally Elon Musk is less popular, per Politico.

Pew Research Center found Musk’s approval rating at 42%, with 54% of respondents saying they have an unfavorable opinion of Trump’s head of the Department of Government Efficiency. Quinnipiac University posed a different question, asking if respondents think Musk’s role in the government is too big. A majority, 55%, said it is, while 36% said Musk has about the right amount of power. Just 3% want him to have more. Trump’s approval rating by issue doesn’t vary much, with 42% liking his handling of the economy, for instance, though he was at 48% in February 2017. His approval rating on immigration is 46% and on foreign affairs, 44%.

But not to worry Donny has a plan, the same plan in his first term….

Could Americans see some cash from all these DOGE cost-saving measures? President Trump says he’s considering the idea, the Wall Street Journal reports. “We’re thinking about giving 20% back to the American citizens and 20% down to pay back debt,” he said at a Saudi Arabia-sponsored gathering of business and tech executives in Miami. “If it were a real-estate balance sheet, the debt is tiny, but we still, we still want to pay it down.” He gave no further details. Elon Musk earlier this week responded to a post on X suggesting the same idea, saying, “Will check with the president.”

The co-founder of the investment firm who suggested the idea on X estimated that if DOGE hits its targeted savings of $2 trillion, 20% of that is $400 billion, meaning each US household could get about $5,000, CNBC reports. It’s not clear how close DOGE is to hitting that savings target at this point, but Musk has admitted in the past that number is a best-case scenario. DOGE has claimed cuts of $55 billion so far, but outside reports indicate that’s likely an overestimate, with one report pointing out the department has so far only accounted for $16.6 billion of those cuts. The federal budget for the most recent fiscal year was $6.75 trillion.

Since many of his ardent support pretend to worry about the debt he might throw some money at it and quieten the mob and then sending out checks will make the more pathetic and slow in society embrace him.

In other words Americans are for sale…..in more ways than one.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Trumpian Ignorance Of International Affairs

I have been saying this person is a ninny for at least a decade….but he fires off his mouth before his brain is loaded….his most recent stupidity came when talking about Ukraine….

President Trump on Tuesday appeared to blame Ukraine for starting its war with Russia, despite the fact that it was Russia that invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Responding to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s anger that Ukraine was not invited to Tuesday’s US-Russia talks, and his assertion that Ukraine won’t agree to any peace deal it wasn’t a part of negotiating, Trump said, per CNN:

  • “I think I have the power to end this war, and I think it’s going well. But today I heard, ‘Oh well, we weren’t invited.’ Well, you been there for three years. You should’ve ended it after three years. You should’ve never started it. You could’ve made a deal.”

Trump also falsely claimed Zelensky has just a 4% approval rating, Axios reports. As for the supposed “deal” Ukraine could have made, Trump said, per the BBC, that it “would have given them almost all of the land, everything, almost all of the land—and no people would have (been) killed, and no city would have been demolished.” He said Russia wants “to stop the savage barbarianism.” As for whether Ukraine is an equal member of peace negotiations, he wouldn’t answer the question directly, the Hill reports, but only said, “Their people are being killed, and I think they have to make peace. I said that was not a good war to go into, and I think they have to make peace. That’s what I think.”

His lack of knowledge is troubling and a bit clown-like.

How can anyone with half a brain take this babbling buffoon seriously?

Then there is wannabe dictator calling someone a dictator….(god I love this stuff)….

The war of words is heating up between Donald the Orange and Ukraine’s Zelensky….Trump’s newest attack is a personal one….

President Trump doubled down on his attacks on Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday, a day after he blamed Ukraine for starting a war that began with Russia’s invasion. In a Truth Social post, Trump accused Zelensky of talking the US into spending $350 billion “to go into a War that couldn’t be won.” Trump called Zelensky a “Dictator without Elections” and said he “better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left.” The president described the war as one that Zelensky, “without the U.S. and ‘TRUMP,’ will never be able to settle,” Politico reports.

“He refuses to have Elections, is very low in Ukrainian Polls, and the only thing he was good at was playing Biden ‘like a fiddle,'” Trump said of Zelensky. Earlier Wednesday, Zelensky pushed back against Trump’s remarks about Ukraine starting the war, saying the president is in a “disinformation bubble” influenced by Russia. Vladimir Putin has called for Ukraine to hold elections, which are not allowed during wartime under Ukrainian law, the Wall Street Journal reports.”

This situation is getting interesting but calling Zelensky a dictator is pot calling the kettle black.

Trump will keep up the pressure or at least the verbal pressure for as long as possible….

President Donald Trump continued to attack Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday, asserting in a social media post that the U.S. was duped into spending billions to help Ukraine defend itself following Russia’s 2022 invasion — and himself seemingly threatening the country’s existence.

“Think of it, a modestly successful comedian, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, talked the United States of America into spending $350 Billion Dollars, to go into a War that couldn’t be won, that never had to start, but a War that he, without the U.S. and ‘TRUMP,’ will never be able to settle,” the president wrote in a post on Truth Social. “A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/19/trump-attacks-zelenskyy-as-a-dictator-without-elections-who-duped-us-00204881

I love it a moderately successful business man and calling Z-Man a modestly successful comedian….who writes his stuff?

Where will this battle go from here?

More words or will someone find some action to be had?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”