#executive branch

[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.

[alwaysbewoke]

x

[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.

[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.

[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.

[deadpresidents]

So now we’ve seen some nice-looking Oval Office setups. Do you have some atrocious ones?

When President Kennedy traveled to Texas in November 1963 and was scheduled to be away from the White House for a few days, White House staff put the finishing touches on a planned redecoration of his Oval Office. JFK, of course, was assassinated on that trip, so he actually never saw his redecorated office, but it was pretty brutal-looking, in my opinion, as they installed a bright red carpet that just didn't seem to fit in the Oval Office:

Here's a comparison of the Oval Office when JFK took office in 1961, which largely looked like the decor used by President Eisenhower throughout the Eisenhower Administration, and the ugly, red carpet redecoration that Kennedy never saw due to his assassination:

When LBJ assumed office following JFK's assassination, he kept the bright red carpet for a while, but eventually redecorated again and got rid of the carpet. LBJ also swapped out the legendary Resolute desk that has been used by most Presidents over the past 120 years. President Johnson was a physically large man, and he installed a larger desk that he had previously used when he was in the Senate and serving as Vice President. The desk that LBJ used -- which is actually called the "Johnson desk" -- is now on display at the LBJ Presidential Library | @lbjlibrary | in Austin, Texas in the museum's Oval Office replica, which displays LBJ's Oval Office as it looked once he replaced the ugly red carpet and had the office redecorated to suit his own tastes.

[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

[joiultra]

The Supreme Court Shouldn’t Get the Last Word

News Article written by Braxton Brewington for Hammer and Hope, Summer 2023, No. 2. Read it here. Brewington wrote this article in the wake of a few destructive Supreme Court decisions – Biden v. Nebraska (which took a dump on student debt relief) and 2023’s Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard & Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina (which ended affirmative…

[whatstheusgovernmentdoing]

11/18/24 - White House

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

[nationallawreview]

Supreme Court Issues Landmark Decision Upending Deference to Federal Agencies

On June 28, 2024, the Supreme Court of the United States upended the 40-year-old doctrine whereby federal courts gave deference to administrative agencies’ reasonable interpretations of federal statutes. The ruling stands to have significant implications for federal agencies’ rulemaking and enforcement of federal labor and employment laws. Quick Hits The Supreme Court held that courts must…

[petnews2day]

Who is South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem? Dog controversy, more to know

New Post has been published on https://petnews2day.com/news/pet-news/dog-news/who-is-south-dakota-gov-kristi-noem-dog-controversy-more-to-know/?utm_source=TR&utm_medium=Tumblr+%230&utm_campaign=social

Who is South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem? Dog controversy, more to know

S.D. Gov. Kristi Noem’s COVID-19 plan: ‘Less COVID, more hunting’ South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem showed how social distancing is done in her state, while hunting. Tweeted by the governor’s official account on Sept. 23. Storyful South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has been a topic of online chatter after excerpts from her upcoming memoir were […]

See full article at https://petnews2day.com/news/pet-news/dog-news/who-is-south-dakota-gov-kristi-noem-dog-controversy-more-to-know/?utm_source=TR&utm_medium=Tumblr+%230&utm_campaign=social #DogNews #Of, #Trending, #Animal, #AnimalWelfare, #BooksU0026Literature, #Books, #Branch, #Campaigns, #CampaignsU0026Elections, #Central, #CentralRegion, #Company, #Cricket, #Dakota, #Dogs, #Donald, #DonaldTrump, #East, #EastRegion, #Elections, #Executive, #ExecutiveBranch, #Government, #Governors, #House, #Hunting, #HuntingDogs, #Kristi, #KristiNoem, #Literature, #Mention, #Modular, #ModularStory, #Negative, #New, #NewYorkTimesCompany, #Overall, #OverallNegative, #Party, #Point, #Politico, #Politics, #Presidential, #Region, #Representatives, #Republican, #RepublicanParty, #Residence, #South, #SouthDakota, #Story, #The, #Times, #ToThePoint, #To, #TrendingVideo, #Trump, #US, #USHouseOfRepresentatives, #U0026, #Video, #Welfare, #West, #WestRegion, #White, #WhiteHousePresidentialResidence, #York