#executive branch

[alwaysbewoke]

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[deadpresidents]

"Somehow disruption doesn't begin to cover it. Upheaval might be closer. Revolution maybe. In less than two weeks since being elected again, Donald J. Trump has embarked on a new campaign to shatter the institutions of Washington as no incoming President has in his lifetime.

He has rolled a giant grenade into the middle of the nation's capital and watched with mischievous glee to see who runs away and who throws themselves on it. Suffice it to say, so far there have been more of the former than the latter. Mr. Trump has said that 'real power' is the ability to engender fear, and he seems to have achieved that.

Mr. Trump's early transition moves amount to a generational stress test for the system. If Republicans bow to his demand to recess the Senate so that he can install appointees without confirmation, it would rewrite the balance of power established by the Founders more than two centuries ago. And if he gets his way on selections for some of the most important posts in government, he would put in place loyalists intent on blowing up the very departments they would lead.

He has chosen a bomb-throwing backbench congressman who has spent his career attacking fellow Republicans and fending off sex-and-drugs allegations to run the same Justice Department that investigated him, though it did not charge him, on suspicion of trafficking underage girls. He has chosen a conspiracy theorist with no medical training who disparages the foundations of conventional health care to run the Department of Health and Human Services.

He has chosen a weekend morning television host with a history of defending convicted war criminals while sporting a Christian Crusader tattoo that has been adopted as a symbol by the far right to run the most powerful armed forces in the history of the world. He has chosen a former congresswoman who has defended Middle East dictators and echoed positions favored by Russia to oversee the nation's intelligence agencies.

Nine years after Mr. Trump began upsetting political norms, it may be easy to underestimate just how extraordinary all of this is. In the past, none of those selections would have passed muster in Washington, where a failure to pay employment taxes for a nanny used to be enough to disqualify a cabinet nominee. Mr. Trump, by contrast, has bulled past the old red lines, opting for nominees who are so provocative that even fellow Republicans wondered whether he is trolling them.

The message to Washington is simple, according to Roger Stone, the longtime Trump friend who relishes his own reputation as a political dirty trickster. 'Things are going to be different,' he said by text."

-- Peter Baker, "Trump Signals a 'Seismic Shift,' Shocking the Washington Establishment,' The New York Times, November 17, 2024.

Here's another incisive article about President-elect Donald Trump's transition and his frightening Cabinet nominees, who are abnormal even for Trump and the personality cult that has been built around him since 2015. For the past quarter-century, Peter Baker has been one of the very best, most level-headed analysts of the contemporary American Presidency, and he seems be stunned by the direction the incoming Trump Administration is already heading. Once again, all of these links are gift links to bypass the New York Times paywall so that you may read and share these important pieces and remain alert to the very real consequences of the 2024 election which are already taking shape.

[elumish]

Things to keep in mind when writing stuff involving (U.S.) federal offices/federal employees/federal contractors:

You need a badge to get in. If you don't have a badge you will at minimum have to go through a metal detector and have your stuff be x-rayed and sign in and then have an escort. You might get a guest lanyard, a temporary ID badge, or a wristband. At maximum you just won't get in.

You can potentially get in with a badge for a different agency, but you will still likely need to sign in and be let in manually, because your badge won't have building access to swipe you in past security

It can take a long time to get a badge, and it's way worse for contractors. For contractors it can take anywhere from days to over a year to get badged.

Working for the federal government doesn't necessarily mean you have a security clearance. A lot of civilian agencies just require a public trust, which generally involves much lower requirements and a much less invasive background check but can involve the equivalent of a Secret clearance background check (namely if you have a law-enforcement sensitive public trust).

You need to get fingerprinted, which may happen at the actual badging office or at a random contracted fingerprinting place. Basically all fingerprinting is digital at this point.

You need to get fingerprinted even if you have already been fingerprinted/badged elsewhere. They generally don't talk to each other.

Having a clearance can make it a bit easier/faster to get a public trust elsewhere due to reciprocity, but it can still take a while.

Federal buildings are often set pretty far back from the road and/or they have barricades in front of them.

It's not uncommon in some agencies to see mix of people in uniform and people not in uniform. Not all uniformed services are military. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps are both non-armed uniformed services.

Most federal employees operate under the General Service (GS) pay scale, and people will sometimes be referred to as a GS-X (e.g., GS-13, GS-14). This is an easy reference of relative position.

Some federal employees may operate under other pay scales, such as the Federal Wage System for blue-collar workers. High-ranking federal employees may be under the Senior Executive Service (SES) which is above the GS scale. Other agencies (e.g., the SEC) use their own pay scales.

[reading-writing-revolution]

“I agree with Biden that Congress shouldn’t trade stocks, but should be across all 3 branches. I wrote a bill to ban Pres, VP, Cabinet, senior officials, Congress, Supreme Court Justices and federal judges from both owning and trading individual stocks. One single standard.”

How many people in federal-level politics are millionaires? It’s all a scam, even if you aren’t participating in it. Dark money, very little accountability, PACs, the ability to trade in securities that your own vote can affect. It’s all a scam. I don’t care if you are doing the right thing by your voters as a politician. You’re letting it happen, and it’s a known, visible scam. Fix it.

[personal-blog243]

My supervisor at lunch a few days ago decided to bring up politics at our work lunch. 🙄

I’m pretty sure she voted for Trump, but she was still expressing some concern about favoritism and nepotism is Trumps cabinet picks.

Her boss (the head of my department at work, who is a Trump supporter) basically acknowledged that it’s probably not a great thing but he said that ���everybody does it”. I don’t know to what extent that is true, but Trump cabinet members seem to have more conflicts of interest than I have seen in my lifetime. Just because “everybody does it” doesn’t mean Trump should.

Another argument he made was “wouldn’t you rather have someone you know and trust?”. I find it interesting that nepotism and conflicts of interest is now being framed as a “trust” issue for them because they don’t “trust” to actually go through a vetting and hiring process to find a candidate for a cabinet position???

I am not sure how to get through to these people. I am not exactly a fan of the system and the establishment either but it’s ironic that now these people are being tricked into supporting conflicts of interest and nepotism and corruption in the president’s administration in the name of “not trusting the bureaucracy” somehow???

What do we do about this argument???

I decided to stay quiet and not say anything to my boss about politics over lunch but how do I get through to Trump supporters in general?

[jccheapalier]

Kamala Harris’s Track Record: Big Spending, Wokeness, Equity and Flip Flops

[whatstheusgovernmentdoing]

11/15/24 - White House

President Biden will participate the APEC Leaders' Informal Dialogue with Guests; and meet with world leaders Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru of Japan, President Yoon Suk Yeol of the Republic of Korea, and President Dina Boluarte Zegarra of the Republic of Peru

Department of State: A new agreement will allow the U.S. and the United Kingdom to exchange equipment and classified information for defensive purposes - The DoS has imposed visa restrictions on the Nicaraguan National Police due to their violations of civil liberties

Department of Defense: The DoD will be working harder to make sure all congressionally authorized funding to Ukraine arrive before the end of the Biden-Harris Administration in January

Department of Justice: Christopher Carl Meier has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for CSAM - The DoJ has found that the Fulton County Jail in Georgia violates the 8th and 14th Amendments - Money Launderer Ilya Lichtenstein has been sentenced to 5 years in prison - George Semerene Quintero has been sentenced to 30 months in prison for violating the IEEPA

Department of Commerce: The DoC has given TSMC Arizona $6.6B to manufacture semiconductors

Department of Labor: The DoL has secured $14K in back pay for employee who was illegally fired

Department of Health and Human Services: Five states have been approved to grant continuous eligibility to healthcare

Department of Housing and Urban Development: The HUD has given $37M to the Reno Housing Authority to expand affordable housing options

[agentfascinateur]

Democrat Inspo:

#moving forward

(not exhaustive)

(not an endorsement of the US state department in any way whatsoever)

[democraticelectorateoflivonia]

I'm thinking of moving a motion to create a department of culture and language to handle culture and language world building stuff (tbh I just want to make a Livonia conlang can do other stuff too, but yeah, that's my thoughts)

I could send this as an official Legislative Act ask if there's agreement

I haven't yet set in place what Departments each Ministry would have, so thanks for setting me in motion.

What you describe could very well be the Department of Local Language and Custom within the Ministry of Education. If you wish to expand upon the subject, be it language or administration, go ahead

[ideatime-letsfight]

The government is about checks and balances- let’s try to check the Executive Branch as much as possible!

The upside is that there was an absentee ballot recount in our most populated and very blue county and it pushed us over for a blue Senate win. So yay for that because I was fucking miserable seeing the Republican win there too.

[deadpresidents]

The White House Telegraph Room -- an early version of the Situation Room -- being used as a command post by the McKinley Administration during the Spanish-American War, 1898.

[allaboutyoupostnthings]

The Bill of Rights: A Pillar of American Freedom

The Bill of Rights, ratified on December 15, 1791, is a cornerstone of American democracy. These first ten amendments to the United States Constitution guarantee essential rights and freedoms, protecting individuals from government overreach and ensuring a fair and just society. Understanding the Bill of Rights is crucial to appreciating the freedoms enjoyed in the United States today. In the…

[lesser-mook]

Trump's new 'border czar' Tom Homan's old blunt replies to Democrats go ...

this dude comes forth and just blasts everyone trying to make him bow & grovel & lower his head.

This guy is a beast. Wow. 

34 years of service, respect.

[cannabisbusinessexecutive]

The real cannabis policy power lies beyond the Oval Office

By Steph Sherar, As the presidential candidates’ positions on cannabis policy make the headlines, it’s important to remember that the real power to shape cannabis laws doesn’t reside in the Oval Office. Over the years, advocates have fought for patients’ rights to access medical cannabis under numerous presidencies. Yet, the biggest strides in protecting medical cannabis patients haven’t come…

[shrinkrants]

Nation legal correspondent Elie Mystal wrote . . . of the ruling that is devastating for environmental protection and science-based policy: “In the biggest judicial power grab since 1803, the Supreme Court today overruled Chevron v Natural Resources Defense Council, a 1984 case that instructed the judiciary to defer to the president and the president’s experts in executive agencies when determining how best to enforce laws passed by Congress. In so doing, the court gave itself nearly unlimited power over the administrative state and its regulatory agencies. The US Constitution, flawed though it is, has already answered the question of who gets to decide how to enforce our laws. The Constitution says, quite clearly, that Congress passes laws and the president enforces them. The Supreme Court, constitutionally speaking, has no role.” Until now. -- Rebecca Solnit

[whatstheusgovernmentdoing]

11/18/24 - White House

President Biden is attending the first session of the G20 Summit today