Some fun reading here....the sky is falling stuff.
My theory is if factory workers, be it line workers or plant engineers, or plumbers, carpenters, cooks, store/restaurant managers etc. have to show up at a physical work location, why shouldn't office workers? Do they feel like they are elitist? Somehow better or entitled?
LOL...screw that. Quit your moaning and just show up to work at 8 a.m. Your benefit is you usually get 1 hour for lunch and the others get maybe 30 minutes.
I have yet to have my dentist or MD tell me to show up at their home for my appointment.
Now if you own your own business and generate your own income, work from home all you want. You have earned your right to do that.
If everybody had like minds, we would never learn.
How the hell does somebody else working from home hurt you or anyone else? The mental gymnastics needed to be on the same page as your Dumbass Fuhrer must be exhausting. But the herd mentality of Trump’s sheeple knows no bounds, and I should thank posters like you for making it obvious. Bah bah black sheep. Smh.
I noticed that you avoided the topic of Musk shutting down the consumer protection agency.....
The CFPB tells its workers to 'not perform any work tasks' this week while it shuts down its DC headquarters
The CFPB's new acting director, Russell Vought, told workers on Monday to "not perform any work tasks."
It comes after a Sunday email telling employees not to come into the office.
The federal consumer watching is the latest on President Donald Trump's cost-cutting list.
A key federal consumer watchdog may be the next target of President Donald Trump's cost-cutting agenda.
Russell Vought, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's acting director, sent an email to employees on Monday, reviewed by Business Insider, ordering them to "not perform any work tasks this week."
For "any urgent matters," Vought said in the email, workers should "get approval in writing" through Mark Paoletta, the chief legal officer.
"Otherwise, employees should stand down from performing any work task," Vought said.
On Sunday, employees at the CFPB received a two-sentence email from Adam Martinez, the agency's chief operating officer, telling DC employees to work remotely.
"The DC Headquarters Building will be closed this week (2/10-2/14). Employees and contractors are to work remotely unless instructed otherwise from our Acting Director or his designee," the email, viewed by Business Insider, said.
It's unclear when, if at all, the DC headquarters will reopen. The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump fired Rohit Chopra, the CFPB director under former President Joe Biden, on February 1. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent took on the role of acting director of the agency up until the director of the Office of Management and Budget, Vought, took over the role on Saturday night.
The CFPB was established in 2011 to protect consumers from financial crises. It's taken enforcement and oversight actions on big banks and lenders, returning billions of dollars to consumers. In an email on Saturday, Vought ordered employees to stop nearly all of the agency's work, including its supervisory activities that ensure companies are complying with the law.
A CFPB employee told BI that the order caused nearly all of the agency's ongoing work to stop.
Vought also wrote in a post on X on Saturday that the CFPB "will not be taking its next draw of unappropriated funding because it is not 'reasonably necessary' to carry out its duties."
The CFPB receives its funding from the Federal Reserve rather than through Congress' annual appropriations process, which has been criticized by many GOP lawmakers who have said Congress should oversee the agency's funding.
"This spigot, long contributing to CFPB's unaccountability, is now being turned off," Vought said.
Adam Rust, the director of financial services at the nonprofit Consumer Federation of America, previously told BI that shutting down the CFPB would have "real ramifications for people's pocketbooks." The agency had rules to cap overdraft fees and remove medical debt from credit reports, which are now suspended.
Elon Musk, the leader of Trump's Department of Government Efficiency commission tasked with slashing government waste, has targeted a range of agencies over the past two weeks. A federal judge temporarily blocked Trump's administration from placing more than 2,000 USAID workers on paid leave as the administration took steps to shut down the agency.
So don't work from home unless they tell you to work from home? But then tell you not to do any work from home?
Did anyone even bother to notice that the first two major targets of these "budget cuts" was first to cut off aid to starving children and next to stop consumers from being protected against banks and big business?
If they didn't notice that they should have.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
Trump describes Gaza as a ‘big real estate site’ as he doubles down on plans to redevelop the enclave
President Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his plans for the US to redevelop Gaza, saying that he viewed the war-torn enclave as a “big real estate site.”
“I think that it’s a big mistake to allow people — the Palestinians, or the people living in Gaza — to go back yet another time, and we don’t want Hamas going back. And think of it as a big real estate site, and the United States is going to own it and we’ll slowly — very slowly, we’re in no rush — develop it. We’re going to bring stability to the Middle East soon,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he traveled to the Super Bowl in New Orleans.
According to the United Nations, Israel’s war on Hamas has displaced 90% of Gaza residents, many of whom have been forced to move repeatedly.
Trump, a former real estate magnate, described Gaza as a “demolition site” that would be “leveled out” and “fixed up.”
He again suggested that other Middle Eastern countries would house displaced Palestinians in “beautiful sites.”
Trump first raised the proposal Tuesday during a joint press conference alongside his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu. “The US will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it too,” Trump said, later describing his vision for the area as a new “Riviera.”
Netanyahu has since described Trump’s plan as a “revolutionary, creative vision.”
Addressing a cabinet meeting on Sunday after his return from the United States, Netanyahu said the visit and discussions he had with the US president “carry with them additional tremendous achievements that can ensure Israel’s security for generations.”
Netanyahu told his cabinet on Sunday that Trump presented a “different vision for the ‘day after’” the conflict in Gaza.
“For a whole year, we’ve been told that in the ‘day after,’ we need the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) in Gaza, the Palestinian Authority,” the Israeli leader said.
“President Trump came with a completely different vision, much better for the state of Israel. A revolutionary, creative vision – and we are discussing it. He is very determined to implement it. This also opens up many possibilities for us.”
But a Hamas official called Trump’s latest remarks “absurd.”
“Gaza is not a property that can be bought and sold, and it is an integral part of our occupied Palestinian land,” said Izzat Al-Rishq, a member of Hamas’ political bureau. “Dealing with the Palestinian issue with the mentality of a real estate dealer is a recipe for failure.”
Regional leaders have also rejected Trump’s plans, which break with decades of US foreign policy. His proposals are expected to be a key topic of discussion when the president hosts the king of Jordan at the White House this week.
But Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz, suggested earlier Sunday that Trump was offering an initial salvo to bring other players in the region to the table to find a solution.
“Come to the table with your plan if you don’t like his plan,” Waltz said during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” adding that the White House has received “all kinds of outreach” since Trump’s comments earlier this week.
Some fun reading here....the sky is falling stuff.
My theory is if factory workers, be it line workers or plant engineers, or plumbers, carpenters, cooks, store/restaurant managers etc. have to show up at a physical work location, why shouldn't office workers? Do they feel like they are elitist? Somehow better or entitled?
LOL...screw that. Quit your moaning and just show up to work at 8 a.m. Your benefit is you usually get 1 hour for lunch and the others get maybe 30 minutes.
I have yet to have my dentist or MD tell me to show up at their home for my appointment.
Now if you own your own business and generate your own income, work from home all you want. You have earned your right to do that.
You're parroting talking points of the administration. Office workers also have HVAC while construction workers don't. Should we also turn off our HVAC to make it fair?
It's like what oober said. If it is not necessary, and productivity is not affected, what the flip does it even matter? Everyone who takes a job knows what is necessary and what isn't. If you take a job where there is no way you can do it from home, then you assume the role and the expectations.
As far as WFH goes, our production actually exceeded expectation in 2020 when everyone thought it would fall off because of COVID. I have spent less hours working due to infrastructure shortfalls and the fact I now have to leave my laptop at my office. No more checking emails or getting taskers done at 10 PM. Also no more working when I'm sick.
Times are changing, Peen...
Blue ostriches on crack float on milkshakes between the sidewalk titans of gurglefitz. --YTown
How the hell does somebody else working from home hurt you or anyone else?
I know you won't care, but I'll l tell you anyway in the hope you become educated.
It hurts because office building are left unoccupied.
So how does that hurt?
It hurts the landlord of the building who isn't renting the office space. Yes, I know, you don't care about landlords, but that is where your simple mind stops.
It also hurts the people who took care of the building...cleaning crews and maintenance. It hurts the parking lots. Some landlords indeed, but parking lot attendants as well. It hurts the small business people and workers who needed those people to show up to get lunch/ catering, haircuts, dry cleaning, flower delivery, widow washing and other services. Yes my socialist friend, those buildings supported a lot of other "small guys" scratch out a living, but keep the focus on the person who owns the office building. Your limited brain leave out a lot of others.
If everybody had like minds, we would never learn.
How the hell does somebody else working from home hurt you or anyone else?
I know you won't care, but I'll l tell you anyway in the hope you become educated.
It hurts because office building are left unoccupied.
So how does that hurt?
It hurts the landlord of the building who isn't renting the office space. Yes, I know, you don't care about landlords, but that is where your simple mind stops.
It also hurts the people who took care of the building...cleaning crews and maintenance. It hurts the parking lots. Some landlords indeed, but parking lot attendants as well. It hurts the small business people and workers who needed those people to show up to get lunch/ catering, haircuts, dry cleaning, flower delivery, widow washing and other services. Yes my socialist friend, those buildings supported a lot of other "small guys" scratch out a living, but keep the focus on the person who owns the office building. Your limited brain leave out a lot of others.
Wasn't the building that DL05 ordered back to scheduled for demo?
There is no level of sucking we haven't seen; in fact, I'm pretty sure we hold the patents on a few levels of sucking NOBODY had seen until the past few years.
Jan. 6 conspiracy theory promoter named to a top State Department job
Darren Beattie, who's claimed the FBI was responsible for the 2021 attack on the Capitol, has been named acting undersecretary of state for public diplomacy.
Trump appoints speechwriter fired for attending conference with White nationalists to top State Department role
Darren Beattie, a former Donald Trump speechwriter who was fired in 2018 after CNN revealed he spoke at a conference attended by White nationalists, has been elevated to a top job at the State Department, multiple sources familiar with the move told CNN.
Beattie was appointed to serve as the acting Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, a key role that is responsible for helping shape US messaging abroad related to counterterrorism and violent extremism, according to the State Department website.
How the hell does somebody else working from home hurt you or anyone else?
I know you won't care, but I'll l tell you anyway in the hope you become educated.
It hurts because office building are left unoccupied.
So how does that hurt?
It hurts the landlord of the building who isn't renting the office space. Yes, I know, you don't care about landlords, but that is where your simple mind stops.
It also hurts the people who took care of the building...cleaning crews and maintenance. It hurts the parking lots. Some landlords indeed, but parking lot attendants as well. It hurts the small business people and workers who needed those people to show up to get lunch/ catering, haircuts, dry cleaning, flower delivery, widow washing and other services. Yes my socialist friend, those buildings supported a lot of other "small guys" scratch out a living, but keep the focus on the person who owns the office building. Your limited brain leave out a lot of others.
It hurts landlords and utility companies? It hurts janitors and small services… It saves gas, saves money for underpaid employees, and work from home has proven to be more productive over-all. But hey, don’t let silly facts get in the way of rampant consumerism. They still get haircuts, just closer to home. Same with a bunch of other crap. And the money they save on gas get’s spent locally as well. Your argument holds ZERO validity, comrade.
They seem to be all for starving children and taking away protections for consumers to save money. But those poor landlords and utility companies.................
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
J.D. Vance signaled the Trump administration may try to ignore judicial orders, which could trigger a constitutional crisis.
The vice president wrote on X, “If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal. If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that’s also illegal. Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.”
Vance also shared a post by Adrian Vermeule, professor of constitutional law at Harvard, who wrote, “Judicial interference with legitimate acts of state, especially the internal functioning of a co-equal branch, is a violation of the separation of powers.”
Elon Musk, who has led Donald Trump’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) as it attempts to dismantle and take over federal agencies, signaled he may also support defying the courts. He reshared an X post by “Insurrection Barbie” that said in part, “I don’t like the precedent it sets when you defy a judicial ruling, but I’m just wondering what other options are these judges leaving us.”
Democratic Rep. Daniel Goldman, lead counsel in the first impeachment of Donald Trump, wrote on X in response to Vance: “It’s called the ‘rule of law’ @jdvance. Our constitution created three co-equal branches of government to provide checks and balances on each other (‘separation of powers’). The judiciary makes sure that the executive follows the law. If you do, then you won’t have problems.”
Former Rep. Liz Cheney, who co-chaired the Jan. 6 committee, weighed in, “If you believe any of the multiple federal courts that have ruled against you so far are exceeding their statutory or Constitutional authority, your recourse is to appeal. You don’t get to rage-quit the Republic just because you are losing. That’s tyranny.”
Judges have stepped in to halt or pause a number of executive actions Trump has taken in his first weeks in office as well as Musk’s access to sensitive government data. More than 30 lawsuits filed in district courts across the country seek to challenge the Trump administration’s executive orders.
Last week, a judge temporarily blocked Musk and the DOGE team’s access to confidential Treasury Department payment system data. In issuing the temporary restraining order, U.S. District Judge Judge Paul A. Engelmayer ordered anyone who gained access to this data after Trump’s inauguration “to immediately destroy any and all copies of material downloaded from the Treasury Department’s records and systems.” Engelmayer wrote that the plaintiffs — 19 states and unions that have sued the administration — could suffer “irreparable harm in the absence of injunctive relief.”
A federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration on Friday from placing more than 2,000 U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) employees on administrative leave and ordered the reinstatement of 500 workers already put on leave. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols also ordered that the administration cannot order USAID employees evacuate their host countries before Feb. 14 at 11:59 p.m. The pause will give the courts time to hear “expedited” arguments to decide whether the actions are legal.
Days after Trump was inaugurated, a federal judge temporarily halted Trump’s attempt to end birthright citizenship, calling it “blatantly unconstitutional.” U.S. District Judge John Coughenour, a Reagan appointee, said in January in response to a suit by four states, “I’ve been on the bench for over four decades. I can’t remember another case where the question presented is as clear as this one.… I have difficulty understanding how a member of the Bar could state unequivocally that this is a constitutional order […] It just boggles my mind.” The ACLU and other states are also suing over this executive order.
A temporary restraining order from U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan suspended a Trump administration effort to freeze billions in federal financial assistance payments in a suit brought by nonprofits. U.S. District Judge John McConnell also issued a temporary restraining order over the payment freeze in a lawsuit brought by Democratic attorneys general from 22 states and the Washington, D.C. The administration has since rescinded the Office of Management and Budget memo.
Vance is right, unfortunately. For the wrong reasons, but he's right. Trump can ignore the law because his immune from prosecution while POTUS.
one thing Trump has shown is that judges and fence riders will fall in line with enough pressure. they always do.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
MAGA SCOTUS unleashed a monster on the world stage. And their Frankenstein asses can’t control him. Jurassic Snark. Lizard brained and unapologetically cruel.
How the hell does somebody else working from home hurt you or anyone else?
I know you won't care, but I'll l tell you anyway in the hope you become educated.
It hurts because office building are left unoccupied.
So how does that hurt?
It hurts the landlord of the building who isn't renting the office space. Yes, I know, you don't care about landlords, but that is where your simple mind stops.
It also hurts the people who took care of the building...cleaning crews and maintenance. It hurts the parking lots. Some landlords indeed, but parking lot attendants as well. It hurts the small business people and workers who needed those people to show up to get lunch/ catering, haircuts, dry cleaning, flower delivery, widow washing and other services. Yes my socialist friend, those buildings supported a lot of other "small guys" scratch out a living, but keep the focus on the person who owns the office building. Your limited brain leave out a lot of others.
Wasn't the building that DL05 ordered back to scheduled for demo?
LOL - yes and it still is. But, it is also being retrofitted for additional work stations and infrastructure at the same time.
Gotta love it.
Blue ostriches on crack float on milkshakes between the sidewalk titans of gurglefitz. --YTown
Judge Rules the White House Failed to Comply With Court Order The federal judge in Rhode Island said the Trump administration had failed to comply with his order unfreezing billions of dollars in federal grants. Share full article
The White House has engaged in a flurry of executive orders that have been challenged in court.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times Mattathias Schwartz By Mattathias Schwartz Mattathias Schwartz reports on the federal courts from Philadelphia. Feb. 10, 2025, 2:24 p.m. ET
A federal judge on Monday said the White House has defied his order to release billions of dollars in federal grants, marking the first time a judge has expressly declared that the Trump White House was disobeying a judicial mandate. The ruling by Judge John J. McConnell Jr. in Rhode Island federal court ordered Trump administration officials to comply with what he called “the plan text” of an edict he issued last month. Judge McConnell’s ruling marked a step toward what could quickly evolve into a high-stakes showdown between the executive and judicial branches, a day after a social media post by Vice President JD Vance claimed that “judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power,” elevating the chance that the White House could provoke a constitutional crisis.
Already, more than 40 lawsuits have been filed against the Trump administration, challenging Mr. Trump’s brazen moves that have included revoking birthright citizenship to giving Elon Musk’s teams access to sensitive Treasury Department payment systems. Judges have already ruled that many of these executive actions may violate existing statutes. Both Judge McConnell and a federal judge in Washington, D.C., had previously ordered the White House to unfreeze federal funds locked up by a memo from the White House Office of Management and Budget which demanded that billions of dollars in federal grants be held back until they were determined to comply with President Trump’s priorities, including with ideological litmus tests. On Friday, 22 Democratic attorneys general went to Judge McConnell to accuse the White House of failing to comply with his earlier order. The Justice Department responded in a filing on Sunday that money for clean energy projects as well as transportation infrastructure allocated to states by the Inflation Reduction Act and the bipartisan infrastructure bill was exempt from the initial order, because it had been paused under a different memo than the one that prompted the lawsuit.
Judge McConnell’s ruling on Monday explicitly rejected that argument. The judge granted the attorneys general a “motion for enforcement” — essentially a nudge. It did not find that the Trump administration is in contempt of court or specify any penalties for failing to comply. However, the judge was straightforward in his finding that an initial temporary restraining order that he issued Jan. 29 was not being followed. “These pauses in funding violate the plain text of the T.R.O.,” Judge McConnell wrote. That earlier ruling ordered the administration not to “pause, freeze, impede, block, cancel, or terminate” money that had already been allocated by Congress to the states to pay for Medicaid, school lunches, low-income housing subsidies and other essential services.
The White House fired back almost immediately, predicting an eventual victory. “Each executive order will hold up in court because every action of the Trump-Vance administration is completely lawful,” said Harrison Fields, a White House spokesman. “Any legal challenge against it is nothing more than an attempt to undermine the will of the American people.”
Judge finds Trump administration violated court order halting funding freeze
U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell said the government has not restored funding in several programs despite his Jan. 31 order temporarily halting the freeze.
A federal judge in Rhode Island Monday said that the Trump administration violated his order halting a sweeping federal funding freeze and ordered the government to “immediately restore frozen funding.”
U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell handed down the order after the plaintiffs in the case, a coalition of 22 states, said the government had not restored funding in several programs despite his Jan. 31 order temporarily halting the wide-ranging Office of Management and Budget directive that had caused chaos and confusion across the country.
“The States have presented evidence in this motion that the Defendants in some cases have continued to improperly freeze federal funds and refused to resume disbursement of appropriated federal funds,” McConnell wrote, even though his order lifting the freeze had been "clear and unambiguous."
Justice Department lawyers argued in a court filing that they didn't believe the order covered some of the frozen funding, and that some of the funding at issue is under review to make sure it's "appropriate.
"The Defendants now plea that they are just trying to root out fraud. But the freezes in effect now were a result of the broad categorical order, not a specific finding of possible fraud," McConnell wrote. "The broad categorical and sweeping freeze of federal funds is, as the Court found, likely unconstitutional and has caused and continues to cause irreparable harm to a vast portion of this country."
He said the "pauses in funding violate the plain text" of the temporary restraining order he issued on Jan. 31, and ordered that funding be immediately restored for the duration of the time his TRO is in effect. The order is expected to remain in place until at least a hearing on a preliminary injunction later this month.
In its filing last week asking the judge to take action, the coalition argued that "Jobs, lives, and the social fabric of life in the Plaintiff States are at risk from the disruptions and uncertainty that have continued now a full week after entry of the Order."
Well .... walks like, talks like, posts like .... You respond to the right wing crazies in the same way they post and act. What do you think you are going to get labelled as?
I do get the angst .... after we saw "Libtard" spammed for years across the board and no-one try to address that as a problem, I've used 'Reptard' a few times recently. I'm going to continue to do so. It's not the right thing to do - and it doesn't make any point a make better or stronger. And neither does your firebrand anger and Nazi rhetoric. Just how I see it.
Last edited by mgh888; 02/11/2506:27 AM.
The more things change the more they stay the same.
How the hell does somebody else working from home hurt you or anyone else?
I know you won't care, but I'll l tell you anyway in the hope you become educated.
It hurts because office building are left unoccupied.
So how does that hurt?
It hurts the landlord of the building who isn't renting the office space. Yes, I know, you don't care about landlords, but that is where your simple mind stops.
It also hurts the people who took care of the building...cleaning crews and maintenance. It hurts the parking lots. Some landlords indeed, but parking lot attendants as well. It hurts the small business people and workers who needed those people to show up to get lunch/ catering, haircuts, dry cleaning, flower delivery, widow washing and other services. Yes my socialist friend, those buildings supported a lot of other "small guys" scratch out a living, but keep the focus on the person who owns the office building. Your limited brain leave out a lot of others.
Wasn't the building that DL05 ordered back to scheduled for demo?
In all honesty Oobs, I don't know what you are talking about. I am not saying that to doubt your comment. I have no know idea if some building was scheduled to be demolished or not. Even so, my point stands on solid ground and my comments aren't just directed at government employees. It includes private business as well.
If everybody had like minds, we would never learn.
When a petulant child doesn't get his way a tantrum always comes next. Now attacking the rule of law. Now trying to muddy the waters between the judicial branch and the legislative branch as if there should be zero checks and balances to his power. This is the very type of thing we tried to warn people about it......
Trump, Vance and Musk take aim at the courts as judges halt some of 2nd term agenda
"I think this battle will define Trump’s presidency," one legal expert said.
President Donald Trump and key members of his administration are lashing out at judges who have blocked some of his second-term agenda, suggesting they don't have the authority to question his executive power.
So far, the courts have pushed back on Trump's attempts to end birthright citizenship, freeze federal grants, and the overhaul of federal agencies like USAID and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Over the weekend, the administration hit another roadblock when a federal judge temporarily restricted Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency from accessing the Treasury Department's vast federal payment system, which contains sensitive information of millions of Americans.
Musk accused the judge of being "corrupt" and called for him to be immediately impeached.
Vice President JD Vance, as he's done before, questioned judicial oversight of the executive branch. In an interview with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos last year, Vance suggested a president can ignore a court's order -- even a Supreme Court order -- he considers illegitimate.
"If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal. If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that's also illegal. Judges aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate power," Vance said over the weekend.
(On Monday, a federal judge for the first time said the Trump administration defied a court order when it came to halting Trump's federal spending freeze. The judge ordered the government to "immediately restore frozen funding.")
Trump was asked on Sunday about Vance's comments and some of his setbacks in court.
"When a president can't look for fraud and waste and abuse, we don't have a country anymore," Trump told reporters. "So, we're very disappointed, but with the judges that would make such a ruling. But we have a long way to go."
"No judge should, frankly, be allowed to make that kind of a decision," the president added. "It's a disgrace
Their pushback against the judiciary comes as Trump and his allies assert a sweeping theory of presidential power, one they say gives him sole control of the executive branch. Legal experts told ABC News they believe the Trump administration is trying to set up cases to test that theory before the Supreme Court.
Democrats say Trump is trying to subvert checks and balances under the U.S. Constitution, including the role of Congress in setting the scope of federal agencies and conducting oversight.
"I think this is the most serious constitutional crisis the country has faced certainly since Watergate," Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy said on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday. "The president is attempting to seize control of power, and for corrupt purposes."
California Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff responded directly to Vance's suggestion judges aren't "allowed to control" Trump's executive power on X, writing: "JD, we both went to law school. But we don't have to be lawyers to know that ignoring court decisions we don't like puts us on a dangerous path to lawlessness."
Republicans are largely aligned behind the president. Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton slammed the judge who blocked DOGE's access to Treasury data as an "outlaw." Rep. Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, largely defended Musk's actions as "carrying out the will" of Trump on CNN on Sunday.
Michael Gerhardt, a constitutional law expert at the University of North Carolina, told ABC News Trump's rhetoric is largely "bravado" as "judges are entitled to review the constitutionality of presidential actions."
"The conflict between the Trump administration and the courts is not just brewing; it is likely to persist throughout his second term," Gerhardt said, noting Trump has a long history of criticizing judges with whom he disagrees even if they were appointed by Republican presidents.
"I think this battle will define Trump's presidency," Gerhardt added.
Your post that I responded to is ridiculous. I think you might be getting your talking points from a parody video because returning people to work because buildings are unoccupied (in the name of efficiency, no less) has got to be the one of the dumbest things I've read on here.
You're sitting here posting this nonsense (unoccupied buildings hurt) when we have an example right here on the board that is working out of a building scheduled for demo because "efficiency"... even though his work can (and was) being done remotely.
You don't know what I'm talking about because you've left your brain on 'off' since Trump got handed his first pen.
There is no level of sucking we haven't seen; in fact, I'm pretty sure we hold the patents on a few levels of sucking NOBODY had seen until the past few years.
This would be a really bad move. Airlines have been acting with impunity in their disregard for passengers in years recently. The way that hubs are shuffled around, they already maintain pretty close to an oligopoly setup. Things like the Southwest debacle that happened a year or two back would be much more prevalent. That's what companies need to be told. You either can't have mergers and acquisitions, and earnestly need to compete, or you have to be subject to more regulations, but you can't have both.
Major airlines urge Trump administration to abandon passenger compensation review David Shepardson Tue, February 11, 2025 at 11:31 AM EST2 min read
By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Major U.S. airlines on Tuesday asked the U.S. Transportation Department to abandon a review launched by the Biden administration over whether carriers should be required to pay passengers compensation over flight disruptions.
Airlines for America, a trade group representing American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, and others, urged the Trump administration to end the review launched in December to take comments on whether airlines in the United States should provide cash to compensate for carrier-caused disruptions like they are required to do in the European Union and Canada.
"Airlines do not need further incentive to provide quality service," the group wrote, arguing that USDOT lacks legal authority and that the requirement would drastically boost airlines' costs and hike ticket prices.
The International Air Transport Association representing airlines worldwide separately criticized the idea saying required compensation programs "have become wealth transfer tools that have cost airlines billions of dollars without any meaningful reduction in flight disruptions."
Spirit Airlines said the idea is so extreme "it might encourage carriers to re-evaluate when they proceed with flights that should have been further delayed or canceled when potential safety related concerns exist."
USDOT in December sought comment on whether airlines should be required to pay $200-$300 for domestic delays of at least three hours, $375-$525 for six-hour delays, and $750-$775 for nine-hour delays.
Then-Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in December that compensation rules for delays "would change the economic incentive in a way that motivates airlines to do more."
In May 2023, President Joe Biden said his administration would within months write rules requiring airlines to compensate passengers for disrupted flights.
Airlines must refund passengers for canceled flights, but are not required to compensate customers for delays.
Major carriers have committed to paying for meals, hotel stays and other expenses when they cause significant flight disruptions.
Last month, a U.S. court blocked the Biden administration's 2024 rule requiring upfront disclosure of airline service fees, saying USDOT had not complied with procedural rules.
Blue ostriches on crack float on milkshakes between the sidewalk titans of gurglefitz. --YTown
He already shut down The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau so this would be no different. And of course trump who doesn't believe in ethics and seemingly doesn't understand what that word means decided he needed to appoint another trump loyalist that will bow to his whims...........
Trump ousts director of Office of Government Ethics
President Trump on Monday removed the director of the Office of Government Ethics, the independent agency responsible for overseeing ethics rules and financial disclosures for the executive branch.
"OGE has been notified that the President is removing David Huitema as the director of OGE," the office said in a notice on its website. "OGE is reverting to an Acting Director."
Huitema was appointed to a five-year term by former President Biden. He was confirmed by the Senate in November 2024 and sworn in on December 16, 2024. The office's website initially listed Shelley Finlayson as its acting director. Finlayson has been at the agency since 2006, serving most recently as chief of staff. But Mr. Trump signed a document Monday evening tapping Doug Collins, a Republican former member of Congress and current Department of Veterans Affairs secretary, to be the acting director of OGE.
The move to oust Huitema comes two weeks after Mr. Trump fired at least 17 inspectors general from their roles as watchdogs without explanation, and as Mr. Trump and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency task force have upended multiple government agencies.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
OGE collects both confidential and public financial disclosures, as well as ethics agreements and other forms from government officials, from the president and vice president to high-ranking appointees and Cabinet nominees. The office works to identify and prevent conflicts of interest.
"The primary mission of the executive branch ethics program is to prevent conflicts of interest on the part of executive branch employees, by working to ensure that they make impartial decisions based on the public interest, serve as good stewards of public resources, and loyally adhere to the Constitution and laws of the United States," OGE's mission statement reads.
Six months into Mr. Trump's first term in 2017, Walter Shaub resigned as the head of OGE, saying the Trump White House abandoned the "norms and ethical traditions of the executive branch that have made our ethics program the gold standard in the world until now."
Good government groups raised concerns about the removal of accountability officials at government agencies without explanation.
"The removal of David Huitema as the director of the Office of Government Ethics is the latest in a string of firings directly aimed at the accountability offices in the executive branch," said Caitlin MacNeal, communications director for the Project on Government Oversight. "The firings remove our systems of checks and balances at a time when the wealthiest man in the world is operating inside the government with vast and unprecedented financial conflicts of interest. So it's particularly alarming that the administration has fired the official in specifically charged with policing ethics."
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington executive director Donald K. Sherman said that by "firing the head of the Office of Government Ethics, President Trump is continuing his purge of any independent officials tasked with holding him and his administration accountable to the law and ethical standards."
"This follows his firing of the head of the Office of Special Counsel and 17 inspectors general," Sherman said. "Together, these actions will streamline any efforts he and his administration make to personally profit, install loyalists and avoid oversight of corruption and waste. By all indications, Trump is planning to run a lawless administration and these unprecedented moves are an alarming first step to put those plans into action."
If they do this, the only flights I'd take is overseas only, no domestic flights. mainland US, we're driving.
I wouldn't want to even bother with the future shenanigans the airline industry pulls off that will have a huge negative effect to the consumer.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
Federal judge expands block on Trump administration effort to cut public health funding
The Trump administration’s effort to cut back on federal funding for the National Institutes of Health for research programs at universities and medical systems has been blocked nationwide.
On Monday, lawyers representing dozens of research institutions told Judge Angel Kelley of the federal district court of Massachusetts that the change “will devastate critical public health research at universities and research institutions in the United States. Without relief from NIH’s action, these institutions’ cutting edge work to cure and treat human disease will grind to a halt.”
Virtually the entire academic and medical communities across the country went to court seeking emergency help.
In hundreds of pages of sworn statements, more than 30 medical system research directors and university leaders describe how research funding cutbacks would devastate their work and harm patients.
One chemistry professor from the State University of New York who studies Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases wrote that the cost reduction by the NIH “will cost thousands of Americans their lives.”
A second lawsuit — helmed by prominent conservative lawyer Paul Clement and other major attorneys — on Monday from American research universities also told the court the NIH cuts would “devastate medical research.”
A third similar lawsuit filed Monday from major groups representing medical schools, pharmacy schools and hospitals had asked Kelley to expand her initial action to apply not just to states that had sued.
Kelley agreed with 22 Democrat-led states that cost cutting should be blocked temporarily.
Late Monday night, Kelley expanded the pause on the NIH cost-cutting nationwide, writing the NIH and the Department of Health and Human Services and “their officers, employees, servants, agents, appointees, and successors are hereby enjoined from taking any steps to implement, apply, or enforce” the NIH cost-cutting “in any form with respect to institutions nationwide until further order is issued by this Court.”
The Trump administration had planned to significantly reduce the amount it underwrites nationally at both public and private universities for funding the overhead costs of research programs.
Under the administration’s plan, funding from the National Institutes of Health, known as indirect cost rates, would be capped at 15% from an average of more than 27%. Some research institutions, including Harvard, have rates higher than 60%, according to the NIH, which said in a post on X last week that the policy would save more than $4 billion a year.
Those rates are aimed at covering the various overhead costs — like facility costs, regulatory compliance and administrative support — that research institutions must account for to support their research.
Republicans raise concerns about research cuts
The proposed funding cuts have raised concern among some Republicans in Congress worried about the impact to the research institutions in their home states.
While she supports the administration’s efforts to trim wasteful federal spending, Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama, typically a reliable Trump ally, told AL.com that “a smart, targeted approach is needed” for the NIH “in order to not hinder life-saving, groundbreaking research at high-achieving institutions like those in Alabama.”
Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, told CNN he’s been in “active conversations” with universities in his state about how the NIH’s proposed cuts could dramatically harm their research abilities, adding, “it’s an issue.”
Perhaps the strongest pushback came from Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who said in a statement Monday that she opposes “the poorly conceived directive.”
Collins, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, said she heard from research institutions in Maine that the cuts would be “devastating, stopping vital biomedical research and leading to the loss of jobs.”
Collins said she spoke to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s pick to lead HHS, that morning “to express my strong opposition to these arbitrary cuts in funding for vital research at our Maine institutions.”
Collins, who said she will support Kennedy’s nomination, claimed that he vowed to reexamine the NIH’s initiative as soon as he’s confirmed. A vote on Kennedy’s nomination is expected this week.
Right now, the regulations we have in place only serve to build a wall around the market and work against potential new competitors.
There is no level of sucking we haven't seen; in fact, I'm pretty sure we hold the patents on a few levels of sucking NOBODY had seen until the past few years.
If they do this, the only flights I'd take is overseas only, no domestic flights. mainland US, we're driving.
I wouldn't want to even bother with the future shenanigans the airline industry pulls off that will have a huge negative effect to the consumer.
Airlines have already significantly devalued their loyalty programs in addition to the massive price hikes as well. I can tell you that it isn't because of costs either, because their margins are going up like crazy. I've made a killing on my DAL investments.
Blue ostriches on crack float on milkshakes between the sidewalk titans of gurglefitz. --YTown
Right now, the regulations we have in place only serve to build a wall around the market and work against potential new competitors.
The regulations "who" built? The EPA? Who elected the EPA to anything? Just to borrow some of your talking points....lol
I understand the fat doesn't like to be cut and will fight to stick around. Self survival. I get it, but like it or not, it's going to be trimmed. It has to because we are on a non survivable path.
If everybody had like minds, we would never learn.
So then trim the actual fat and not the BS that they’re doing.
You have to go after social security and Medicare…..or you have to substantially increase revenue. That’s just math.
Speaking to the latter point, if we’re unsustainable, perhaps the big fat pigs on the top end of the widening wealth gap need to start pitching in better. You can cry communism but it’s pretty factual at this point that their campaign contributions, donations and funded lobbying have had far more of a sway toward moving the government to an oligarchy than anything at all resembling communism.
Blue ostriches on crack float on milkshakes between the sidewalk titans of gurglefitz. --YTown
Right now, the regulations we have in place only serve to build a wall around the market and work against potential new competitors.
The regulations "who" built? The EPA? Who elected the EPA to anything? Just to borrow some of your talking points....lol
I understand the fat doesn't like to be cut and will fight to stick around. Self survival. I get it, but like it or not, it's going to be trimmed. It has to because we are on a non survivable path.
See you the next time when the Cuyahoga river catches fire.
Yeah I don’t like all the regulations and some may have gone too far, but this country was an environment mess before 1970 and the Love Canal and Erin Brokovich stories are for the most part a thing of the past.
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