News

Summary

House Democrats are frustrated with progressive advocacy groups pressuring them to take a stronger stand against the Trump administration.

In a private meeting, lawmakers complained about groups like MoveOn and Indivisible, which have organized thousands of constituent calls demanding Democrats obstruct GOP initiatives.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer have resisted an all-out opposition strategy, despite polls showing 65% of Democratic voters wanting aggressive resistance.

Critics continue calling for stronger tactics to disrupt Republican control.

Summary

Despite promises to detain only high-risk criminals, the Trump administration is also sending nonviolent, low-risk migrants to Guantanamo Bay, internal documents and officials confirm.

While gang members and violent offenders are housed in maximum-security cells, low-risk detainees—many with no criminal records—are placed in a barrack-like facility.

The administration is expanding detention capacity at the base, aiming to hold up to 30,000 migrants.

Civil rights groups have criticized the move, arguing it isolates detainees and undermines legal protections for asylum-seekers and migrants.

Summary

A federal judge in Boston has lifted a temporary freeze on the Trump administration’s "fork in the road" program, which offers mass buyouts to millions of federal workers.

U.S. District Judge George A. O’Toole Jr. ruled that labor unions challenging the plan lacked legal standing, as they were not directly impacted.

The unions argued the program could harm their membership and reputation, but the judge found these concerns insufficient.

With the ruling, the administration’s unprecedented resignation incentive can now proceed.

source: official newsletter preview, archived 13 Feb 2025 01:18:24 UTC

Summary

The State Department has ordered U.S. embassies worldwide to prepare for staff reductions, affecting both American and local employees.

The directive follows President Trump’s new executive order, "ONE VOICE FOR AMERICA'S FOREIGN RELATIONS," which aims to reshape the State Department by consolidating power under political appointees.

The order could lead to embassy closures, withdrawal from international agreements, and reduced diplomatic protections.

Fremont, California

After questions, Senate Minority Leader Daniel Bonham, R-The Dalles, sent another newsletter saying he’ll use official sources for research

Grade school students in several Republican-led states may soon be required to watch a fetal development video produced by a prominent anti-abortion group as part of their curricula.

The White House blocked an Associated Press reporter from an event in the Oval Office on Tuesday because the news agency has not altered its style on the Gulf of Mexico, which U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered renamed to the Gulf of America, the news agency said.

An advocacy group dedicated to fighting corporate agriculture monopolies on Wednesday urged federal antitrust enforcers to take action against egg producers that the group accuses of taking advantage of the bird flu crisis in order to raise prices, inflate their profits, and consolidate their market power.

"Unexpectedly"... who would have thought that taking a chainsaw to all establish trade could be an issue?!

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/25935664

Gloria Oladipo
Wed 12 Feb 2025 08.50 EST

[gives reason to hope - not everyone is going to lie down and take it.]

"About two dozen adults who live at the military base chanted “DEI” and booed at Hegseth as he arrived to the US European Command headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany, NBC News reported.

Separately, a group of students attending the Patch middle school, also in Stuttgart, held a walkout, according to a letter from the school obtained by the Washington Post."

"Protests led by military families are generally uncommon. A spokesperson at the Department of Defense did not respond to the Guardian’s request for comment about the protests."

Summary

Eight former inspectors general fired by Trump have sued, arguing their dismissals violated federal laws protecting oversight officials.

The 2022 Securing Inspector General Independence Act requires presidents to give Congress 30 days’ notice and a detailed rationale before firing inspectors general, which Trump allegedly ignored.

The lawsuit seeks to void their removals, asserting the firings were illegal and hindered their duties.

The case is among more than four dozen that have been filed challenging Trump’s actions.

Summary

Emil Bove, Trump’s acting deputy attorney general, once led efforts to investigate Jan. 6 rioters in New York but now oversees Trump’s push to expose and punish those involved in the prosecutions.

Former colleagues say Bove prioritized Jan. 6 cases and never questioned their legitimacy, yet he now demands FBI lists of investigators and calls prosecutions a “grave national injustice.”

Critics accuse Bove of rewriting history, damaging DOJ credibility, and threatening the careers of law enforcement officials who followed legal procedures.

The U.S. Senate voted Wednesday to confirm Tulsi Gabbard as the chief intelligence official in President Donald Trump’s administration.

Summary

The Senate confirmed Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence in a 52-48 vote, with only Sen. Mitch McConnell breaking GOP ranks to oppose her.

Critics, including Democrats and some Republicans, raised concerns over her past meeting with Syria’s Assad, sympathetic comments on Russia, and prior support for Edward Snowden.

Gabbard reversed her stance on key intelligence policies during her confirmation.

Kanye West has been sued and dropped by his talent agency after he posted a stream of antisemitic abuse, put T-shirts with a swastika on sale in his online shop, and was alleged to have described himself as Hitler to a Jewish employee.

Last week West, also known as Ye, wrote a barrage of antisemitic posts on X including, “I’m a Nazi … I love Hitler”.

The swastika T-shirt was placed for sale on the website of his fashion brand Yeezy, with the product line “HH-01”, assumed to be code for “Heil Hitler”.

Shopify, the company that provided the online platform for Yeezy, has now taken the store offline, stating: “All merchants are responsible for following the rules of our platform. This merchant did not engage in authentic commerce practices and violated our terms.”

Trump revoked a 2011 policy that limited where U.S. immigration enforcement officials could make arrests; some churches have already been raided.

When I got the chance to attend a conservative, evangelical high school in rural Iowa, I was ecstatic. My early education had been in a similar school – where creationism was the one true science, and evolution was satanic propaganda – and I’d spent the interim as a frightened pilgrim in the unholy land of public school. I was a teenage zealot and longed to be among my people.

Twenty-five years later, Donald Trump and the Christian nationalist movement that put him in the White House (twice) are seeking to transform public education into something similar to what I was reared on, where science, history and even economics are taught through an evangelical conservative lens, while prayer and Bible reading are foundations of the curriculum.

These efforts test the boundaries of the constitution’s establishment clause, reversing a century of civil rights victories in public schools, and have the potential to fundamentally alter the way American children learn – and what they learn about.

U.S. consumer prices increased more than expected in January, reinforcing the Federal Reserve's message that it was in no rush to resume cutting interest rates amid growing uncertainty over the economy.