HEADLINES: 2025

It may invoke emotion akin to familial nostalgia to think of old Joe Biden as the U.S.' benevolent grampa.
It appears Biden's extensive public service record verifies his commitment if not benevolence or efficacy.

Among such high-ranking Democrats as Speaker Pelosi, Senate Leader Schumer, & various State governors, former Senator, former Vice President Biden
functioned as the leader of the Democrat party from 2021 through early 2025. BUT,
it's over.

President Trump [R-FL] ruthlessly controls the federal exec.
Speaker Johnson [R-LA] seems to have obtained competent house leadership
Majority Leader Thune [R-SD] has newly acquired senate leadership, so far, capably

Has this left the Democrats, not only among the electorate, but in DC rudderless? Leaderless?
Even those that might argue the Dems. have an impressive "bench", cadre of potential candidates for party leadership may not agree on such a list. So where are they?
Consider AOC, as Trudo has here :

The Hill

Ocasio-Cortez embraces role as attack dog against Trump​

Hanna Trudo / Wed, January 29, 2025 at 6:00 AM EST

12510203f0a55da59099f119c5cd3075

Ocasio-Cortez embraces role as attack dog against Trump
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is embracing her role as one of her party’s sharpest critics of President Trump as other Democrats workshop a softer approach to him.

The “squad” member skipped Trump’s inauguration, marking the first in a series of public back-and-forth exchanges with some of the president’s most loyal defenders on social media. After declaring that she doesn’t support “rapists” to explain her absence, the firebrand congresswoman later directed her ire at Elon Musk for making what many Democrats perceived to be a “Nazi salute” while giving a political speech. Now, she’s calling the early days of Trump’s presidency a “billionaire feeding frenzy.”

Her actions come as Democrats are struggling to coalesce around a unified message against Trump just two weeks into his second term, with some high-profile figures in the party, such as Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), even opening the door to working with him.

“She understands the importance of being seen doing and saying something,” said one progressive Democratic commentator in New York. “The alternative is letting Trump suck up all the media oxygen again, and that has proven disastrous for Dems.”
news.yahoo.com

Ocasio-Cortez embraces role as attack dog against Trump

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is embracing her role as one of the party's sharpest critics of President Trump, while other Democrats are working on a softer approach, with Ocasio-Cortez's actions showing her as the party's most aggressive member.
news.yahoo.com news.yahoo.com

Is this it? AOC or the highway?
 
Shiftless2 said:
"We are once again ruled by an incompetent fool WHO IS GUNNA GET US ALL KILLED!" #42
Click to expand...
Confession:
I read this conclusion, immediately perceived it to be opportunistic partisan alarmism.
Seemed too early in the new administration, that the event occurred within the standards applied during the previous administration.
Then I read:
Shiftless2 said:
"January 20: Trump FIRES the FAA director / January 21: Trump FREEZES all Air Traffic Controller hiring / January 22: Trump DISBANDS the Aviation Safety Advisory Committee / January 28: Trump sends buyout/retirement ransom letter to existing FAA employees" #42
Click to expand...
Really?!

It's already reported there should have been two ATC in the control tower at the time of the collision, but there was only one.

I still think "IS GUNNA GET US ALL KILLED!" resembles partisan hyperbole, self-undermining exaggeration. But if this timeline is accurate, it's an alarm we must not ignore.
 

US military conducts airstrikes against Islamic State operatives in Somalia​

By TARA COPP, AAMER MADHANI and OMAR FARUK

The U.S. military has conducted airstrikes against Islamic State operatives in Somalia, the first attacks in the African nation during President Donald Trump’s second term.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Saturday that the strikes by U.S. Africa Command were directed by Trump and coordinated with Somalia’s government.

An initial assessment by the Pentagon indicated that “multiple” operatives were killed. The Pentagon said it assessed that no civilians were harmed in the strikes.

Trump, in a post on social media, said a senior IS planner and recruits were targeted in the operation.

“The strikes destroyed the caves they live in, and killed many terrorists without, in any way, harming civilians. Our Military has targeted this ISIS Attack Planner for years, but Biden and his cronies wouldn’t act quickly enough to get the job done. I did!” Trump said. “The message to ISIS and all others who would attack Americans is that “WE WILL FIND YOU, AND WE WILL KILL YOU!”

Trump did not identify the IS planner or say whether .....

 
Shiftless2 said:
"The U.S. military has conducted airstrikes against Islamic State operatives in Somalia ..." #44
Click to expand...
Killing for peace is like boinking for virginity.
inspired by Abby Hoffman
Click to expand...
Applying lethal force to contain ISIL under President Obama [D-IL], incandescently brilliant.
Applying lethal force to contain ISIL under President Trump [R-FL], incandescently stupid.

Right?
Kill ISIL? OK
Houthis get a pass?
 
Shiftless2 said:
Trump "Fires" "Freezes" "Disbands" #42
Click to expand...
Trump "freezes",
Buttigieg smacks down.
“Despicable. As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying. We put safety first, drove down close calls, grew Air Traffic Control, and had zero commercial airline crash fatalities out of millions of flights on our watch,” Buttigieg said in a post on social platform X.

“President Trump now oversees the military and the FAA. One of his first acts was to fire and suspend some of the key personnel who helped keep our skies safe. Time for the President to show actual leadership and explain what he will do to prevent this from happening again.” Secretary Pete
Click to expand...

oh Pete,
Might be a job opening in January 2029. Busy?
 
Stolen from another board:

Trump didn’t fire any controllers.

What Trump has done since January 20th include:

  • dissolving the Aviation Safety Advisory Committee
  • firing the head of the TSA
  • the head of the FAA was forced to resign after irreparable conflicts with Elon (keep in mind that Elon’s presence in DC is completely inappropriate, pointless, without precedent so any effects of his presence is completely avoidable). At the time of the collision the position as the head of the FAA remained vacant.
But in that press conference where Trump was supposedly reading from “DEI policies of the FAA” and claimed that severely disabled people were being hired (?) by the FAA (when in reality they’re being confirmed into his cabinet), what Trump is reading is the policy of his first administration’s FAA.

Yeah Trump’s 2019 FAA was the one who issued that expanded hiring policies. **

Because the American aviation sector is worth a lot I believe those finalizing and implementing policies for practice have ample incentives to maintain high safety standards.

** https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...trump-dei-obama-biden-fact-check/78059546007/
 
Shiftless2 said:
"Trump didn’t fire any controllers. ...
What Trump has done since January 20th include" #47
Click to expand...
I haven't corroborated this.
And I'd resist even an ostensibly non-partisan attempt to extrapolate one data point.

But the Trump bull ony has had a relatively brief tenure in the china shop.
We lost two aircraft over the Potomac, and a third in Philadelphia.

Does this meet statistically essential characteristics of a trend? Not sure. BUT !
I wouldn't be all that eager to board an aircraft ...
 
From a Scientific American newsletter


Second Bird-Flu in U.S.​


International officials have reported detecting a new type of bird flu, called highly pathogenic H5N9, among poultry at a U.S. farm for the first time. The newly identified strain differs from the H5N1 avian influenza that in April popped up in humans for the first time in two years. The first person to die of H5N1 influenza in the U.S. was announced in early January. And the H5N1 avian flu virus continues to affect poultry, dairy cows and people in the U.S., as well as the price and availability of eggs. Recent tests identified the second bird-flu virus, H5N9, in poultry at the same California farm where an H5N1 outbreak was reported last year, according to the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH), an intergovernmental organization.

How it works: New influenza strains and subtypes can develop when an animal is infected with more than one flu virus at once. The multiple viruses can swap genetic information, a process called genetic reassortment, or “pick up random genetic mutations as they multiply,” writes health news writer Emily Cooke.

What the experts say: Scientists don’t yet know if the H5N9 flu virus can infect humans. The combination of the two surface proteins represented by H and N in H5N9 is not new. "Other versions, like H5N5 also exist. Just because this was now detected, doesn't mean trouble necessarily," Florian Krammer, a professor of vaccinology, told CBS News.

Sorry - don't have a subscription, just get the newsletter, so this is all I've got
 
Shiftless2 said:
"How it works: New influenza strains and subtypes can develop when an animal is infected with more than one flu virus at once. The multiple viruses can swap genetic information, a process called genetic reassortment, or “pick up random genetic mutations as they multiply,” writes health news writer Emily Cooke." #49
Click to expand...

From sear's notes:

Influenza only has 8 genes (humans have ~20K).

Two of those 8 genes are responsible for getting the virus into and out of a cell.

A virus enters, or penetrates a cell using the Hemagglutinin gene; referred to as "H". But penetrating the cell isn't enough. After it penetrates and replicates, the replicants need to exit that cell to infect the entire host.

The gene for that is Neuraminidase, N.

In birds, there are 16 different kinds of H gene, and 9 different kinds of N. Every flu is some combination of those.

Humans have only caught a few.

The 1918 influenza virus, H1N1, killed ~50M; ~3% of Earth’s human population.

Hong Kong Flu is H3N2.

Avian flu (nicknamed "bird flu") is H5N1.
 
Tinfoil hat time?

JFK Two Shooters Theory: Files Release Could Upend Assassination Details​


Representative Anna Paulina Luna (R) said Tuesday that she believes "two shooters" were involved in the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy.

Why It Matters
The news comes after President Donald Trump signed an order declassifying government files related to the assassination of JFK, in a move that could upend our understanding of how his assassination went down.

Trump has also declassified files related to the assassinations of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and Senator Robert F. Kennedy.

What To Know​

During a Capitol Hill press conference on Tuesday, Republican Representative Luna said she believes ....

www.newsweek.com

JFK two shooters theory: files release could upend assassination details

Representative Anna Paulina Luna said Tuesday that she believes "two shooters" were involved in the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy.
www.newsweek.com www.newsweek.com
 

Obama library, begun with lofty DEI goals, now plagued by $40M racially charged suit, ballooning costs​

The Black-owned firm claims it was accused of under performing in the project because of race
By Michael Dorgan Fox News / February 16, 2025 6:32am EST
Construction of former President Barack Obama's long-awaited library and museum in Chicago began with ambitious plans for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) but is now plagued by huge cost overruns, delays and a $40.75-million, racially charged lawsuit filed by a minority contractor.
From the outset, the endeavor touted DEI as a key part of enshrining Obama's legacy at the 19.3-acre site, where costs have ballooned from an initial $350 million to $830 million in 2021 based on its previous annual reports, with no publicly available figures available for updated projected costs. The project set out "ambitious goals" for certain construction diversity quotas, with its contracts to be allocated to "diverse suppliers," 35% of which were required to be minority-based enterprises (MBEs).
"With these aggressive goals, the foundation is hoping to set a new precedent for diversity and inclusion in major construction projects in Chicago and beyond," the Obama Foundation wrote in a 2017 press release.

In the lawsuit, McGee claims that Thornton Tomasetti changed standards and imposed new rules around rebar spacing and tolerance requirements that differed from the American Concrete Institute standards.
www.foxnews.com

Obama library, begun with lofty DEI goals, now plagued by $40M racially charged suit, ballooning costs

Construction of former President Obama's long-awaited library and museum in Chicago began with ambitious plans for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) but is now plagued by huge cost overruns, delays and a $40 million racially charged lawsuit filed by a minority contractor.
www.foxnews.com www.foxnews.com
 

Trump is slashing funds to government services like the IRS — here’s why this tax season could be extra risky​

Vawn Himmelsbach / Mon, February 17, 2025 at 7:34 AM EST
It’s been a couple of rough years for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and while you may find it hard to sympathize with the taxman, its problems could become your problems.

The organization has been working to address shortcomings in its taxpayer services, refund and returns processing, as well as IT, but cuts to its funding and labor force threaten to halt progress and reduce service levels.

The IRS annual budget remained flat from fiscal 2023 to fiscal 2024. Nearly $80 billion was allocated to the agency under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Most of this monetary infusion was going to go towards expanding enforcement, but some was meant for other initiatives, like improving technology, attracting skilled workers, and quickly resolving taxpayer issues. But Republicans have chipped away at that figure since it was enacted in 2022.

According to The Associated Press, “A 2023 debt ceiling and budget-cuts deal between Republicans and the White House resulted in $1.4 billion rescinded from the agency and a separate agreement to take $20 billion from the IRS over the next two years and divert those funds to other nondefense programs.”
In November 2024, Treasury Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo told AP reporters the cuts would have a material impact on the IRS.
“The IRS is going to potentially have to make dramatic decisions about stopping hiring and starting to budget for a world in which they don’t have $20 billion which will stop a lot of their progress,” he said. ”If they don’t get that $20 billion that is at risk they would run out of enforcement money at the current pace sometime in fiscal year 2025.”
news.yahoo.com

Trump is slashing funds to government services like the IRS — here’s why this tax season could be extra risky

A slimmer IRS is good news for fat cats, not you.
news.yahoo.com news.yahoo.com


How Much Did President Trump Add to the Debt?​

Jan 10, 2024 / Budgets & Projections / US Budget Watch 2024
We estimate the ten-year cost of the legislation and executive actions President Trump signed into law was about $8.4 trillion, with interest.
www.crfb.org

How Much Did President Trump Add to the Debt? | Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget

2024-01-10-Note: We published a more comprehensive, up-to-date
www.crfb.org www.crfb.org
 

Measles Outbreak– Feb. 18, 2025​

The Texas Department of State Health Services is reporting an outbreak of measles in the South Plains region of Texas. At this time, 58 cases have been identified with symptom onset within the last three weeks. Thirteen of the patients have been hospitalized. Four of the cases are vaccinated. The rest are unvaccinated, or their vaccination status is unknown. Due to the highly contagious nature of this disease, additional cases are likely to occur in Gaines County and the surrounding communities. DSHS is working with South Plains Public Health District and Lubbock Public Health to investigate the outbreak.

Measles Outbreak– Feb. 18, 2025 | Texas DSHS

www.dshs.texas.gov www.dshs.texas.gov

Kennedyyyyyy to the rescuuuuuuuue ! - hoorah -
 

Trump removes Joint Chiefs chairman Gen. CQ Brown in purge of military leaders​

Brown is among the senior military officials the Trump administration has linked to Biden-era diversity, equity and inclusion…
by Tom Vanden Brook, Zac Anderson and Davis Winkie

President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced late Friday they are replacing several senior military officials that the Trump administration has linked to Biden-era diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Among those targeted in the purge of military brass was Air Force Gen. CQ Brown, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the nation’s most senior military officer.

Trump announced he is nominating Air Force Lieutenant Gen. Dan Caine to replace Brown as Joint Chiefs chairman.

"I want to thank General Charles “CQ” Brown for his over 40 years of service to our country, including as our current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff," Trump posted on social media. "He is a fine gentleman and an outstanding leader, and I wish ....

CONTINUED
 
Politics February 19, 2025

Trump's Job Approval Rating at 45%; Congress' Jumps to 29% ​

by Megan Brenan

Republicans Register High Approval of Trump​

Ninety-three percent of Republicans, 37% of independents and 4% of Democrats approve of Trump’s job performance overall.
news.gallup.com

Trump's Job Approval Rating at 45%; Congress' Jumps to 29%

Trump's approval rating is at 45%, with broad support from Republicans. Republicans are also behind an improved job rating for Congress.
news.gallup.com news.gallup.com


"... and 4% of Democrats approve of Trump’s job performance overall.

Has there ever been a more compelling argument for supporting / approving Democrats?

Democrats may not be any better than they ever were. BUT !
Have the Republicans ever been worse?

special message:
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Gen. CQ Brown :
Thank you for your superlative service sir. You have well earned the gratitude of a few hundred million of your closest friends.
Enjoy your retirement sir.
 

US Congress nowhere close to deal to avert shutdown ahead of March 14 deadline​

By Richard Cowan and David Morgan / March 3, 20256:07 AM GMT-5

WASHINGTON, March 3 (Reuters) - With less than two weeks to go before a March 14 deadline, Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. Congress appear to be nowhere close to a deal to avert a government shutdown that would throw Washington into deeper turmoil.
The talks have been complicated by President Donald Trump, who has ignored spending laws passed by Congress, suspended foreign aid and fired tens of thousands of federal workers.


a) karma
When Democrats had a role, Republicans were ruthless obstructionists, forcing government into shutdown.
Republicans forced shutdown, but were not able to evade blame.

Shoe's on the other foot now.

b) If what Republicans intend to do is demolish government, allowing it to go dormant may not be all bad.
 
#59
sear said:
Monday March 3

US Congress nowhere close to deal to avert shutdown ahead of March 14 deadline #59​

Click to expand...

House Republicans unveil bill to avoid shutdown and they’re daring Democrats to oppose it​

By KEVIN FREKING / Updated 8:14 PM GMT-5, March 8, 2025
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans unveiled a spending bill Saturday that would keep federal agencies funded through Sept. 30, pushing ahead with a go-it-alone strategy that seems certain to spark a major confrontation with Democrats over the contours of government spending.
The 99-page bill would provide a slight boost to defense programs while trimming nondefense programs below 2024 budget year levels. That approach is likely to be a nonstarter for most Democrats who have long insisted that defense and nondefense spending move in the same direction.
Congress must act by midnight Friday to avoid a partial government shutdown.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is teeing up the bill for a vote on Tuesday despite the lack of buy-in from Democrats, essentially daring them to vote against it and risk a shutdown. He also is betting that Republicans can muscle the legislation through the House largely by themselves.

The U.S'. is reportedly the only federal government with a self-inflicted debt limit.
The noble purpose was as a means to corral runaway U.S. federal spending. It doesn't work. $36,218,587,006,168.51

What the U.S. federal debt ceiling has instead provided is serial funding crises requiring congress to intervene to increase the limit enough to continue U.S. federal government operations.
When the Democrats held some political influence, the Republicans obstructed, occasionally shutting government down.
"Shutting down the government in my view is not conservative policy. I don't think a two week paid vacation for federal employees is conservative policy.
A number of us were saying back in July that this [government shutdown] strategy could not and would not work. And of course, it didn't. So there'll not be another government shutdown. You can count on that." Sen. McConnell (R-KY) CBS-TV Face The Nation 13/10/20
Click to expand...
The $shoe is on the other foot now, with Republicans dominating the exec, the house, the senate, and SCOTUS.

Will the Republicans / have the Republicans embedded poison pill legislation? Inserted statutory language the Democrats would not otherwise agree to, that the Democrats must either accept, or not provide bipartisan support to Republican leaders to avert shutdown?
 
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