United States | News & Politics

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/39535983

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/38388581

Simultaneous purging of the chief generals of all three branches.
They are ensuring the military has no cohesiveness to stage a future coup against the Executive Branch, and are replacing all control with their own loyalists.

Probably should be taken with several very large grains of salt, but the article did just get yanked off of Daily Beast's website...

Even the fucking RN knows this isn't a good look.

The office’s “major staff turnover,” as one team Fetterman veteran put it, comes amid a tough hiring environment for Democratic staffers in Washington.

“I don’t find this as a surprise,” said the former Fetterman campaign staffer, who requested anonymity to protect their livelihood. “I think the staff is probably frustrated that working in the Fetterman office means you’re just working on Israel all the time.”

Since the October 7 attack, Fetterman’s office has ignored most of the issues he campaigned on, instead turning almost all his focus toward the Israel–Palestine conflict, according to people familiar with his office. At the same time, Fetterman has added a number of Republican donors to his roster, The Intercept reported.

Since Trump took office last month, Fetterman has become a sometime Republican ally. He was one of 12 Democrats in the Senate to support the GOP’s draconian new immigration law. At times, Fetterman has been Trump’s sole ally across the aisle. He was the only Democrat to vote to confirm Pam Bondi, Trump’s nominee for attorney general who helped spread the lie that Trump won the 2020 presidential election.

Bannon, host of the influential War Room podcast and a former White House chief strategist during Trump's first term, gave a speech Thursday at the annual conservative gathering in Gaylord National Resort Hotel And Convention Center in Oxon Hill, Maryland.

During his speech, Bannon repeated his calls for Trump to run for an unconstitutional third term, telling the crowd, "We want Trump in '28."

Bannon later said near the end of his speech that "the only way we lose is if we quit" and that they will never "surrender." He then chanted "fight, fight, fight" before raising his right arm with his palm down.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/26257143

In summary:

• Media: Some major media outlets have been slow to respond, with scoops coming from unexpected sources. The Washington Post may be hampered by its owner's potential conflicts, and The New York Times is criticized for downplaying the gravity of the news.
• Academia: Academic institutions have been largely silent, though individual academics have raised concerns. There's a call for coordinated public pronouncements from university leadership, especially from law and medical schools, and for professional associations to sanction members in defense of the public sphere.
• Business: Business leaders have a history of misjudging the dangers of autocratic leaders and have been truckling to the new administration, possibly out of fear of reprisals. However, they may awaken to the economic dangers of executive overreach.
• Mass Mobilization: Mass mobilization is underway, but efforts may struggle if elites underplay the magnitude of the moment. Religious organizations have a role to play in combating Christian nationalism. Public opposition is smaller than it was during the first Trump administration.
• Coordination: Across all sectors of civil society, coordination is key, as individual objections do not carry the weight of joint action. Resistance to authoritarianism is a collective endeavor.

In summary:

• Media: Some major media outlets have been slow to respond, with scoops coming from unexpected sources. The Washington Post may be hampered by its owner's potential conflicts, and The New York Times is criticized for downplaying the gravity of the news.
• Academia: Academic institutions have been largely silent, though individual academics have raised concerns. There's a call for coordinated public pronouncements from university leadership, especially from law and medical schools, and for professional associations to sanction members in defense of the public sphere.
• Business: Business leaders have a history of misjudging the dangers of autocratic leaders and have been truckling to the new administration, possibly out of fear of reprisals. However, they may awaken to the economic dangers of executive overreach.
• Mass Mobilization: Mass mobilization is underway, but efforts may struggle if elites underplay the magnitude of the moment. Religious organizations have a role to play in combating Christian nationalism. Public opposition is smaller than it was during the first Trump administration.
• Coordination: Across all sectors of civil society, coordination is key, as individual objections do not carry the weight of joint action. Resistance to authoritarianism is a collective endeavor.

At this point I don't think the US has much credibility to salvage, Brookings.

Excerpt:

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has ordered the digital and physical destruction of 18 publications on workplace safety practices, according to an internal February 7 email obtained by Popular Information. The email says the publications have been removed from the OSHA website and tells staff that any physical copies should be "disposed of or recycled."

The purge appears to be part of the Trump administration's effort to terminate any activities associated with "diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility," or DEIA. The email advises OSHA staff that "[i]f you have wallet cards that include language, or can be interpreted, on DEIA or gender ideology, please dispose of them as well."

Popular Information has obtained archived versions of most of the deleted publications. Almost all of them are not associated with DEIA topics but appear to have been targeted because they include a DEIA-related keyword used in a completely different context.

For example, one of the purged publications is "OSHA Best Practices for Protecting EMS Responders During Treatment and Transport of Victims of Hazardous Substance Releases." Popular Information was able to obtain an archived version of the publication through the Internet Archive. The 104-page document — a collaboration between dozens of government agencies and NGOs — was published in 2009 to detail the steps "employers need to take to protect their EMS responders from becoming additional victims while on the front line of medical response." DEIA issues are not discussed.

On page 94 of the publication, however, the words "diversity" and "diverse" are used in a context that has nothing to do with race or gender. The publication notes there is a "diversity of state-specific certification, training, and regulatory requirements" for "EMS agencies" and "diverse conditions under which EMS responders could work." Similarly, on page 96, the publication notes, "EMS responders are a diverse group" and "risks vary with their primary and secondary roles."

"Guidelines for Nursing Homes: Ergonomics for the Prevention of Musculoskeletal Disorders," is a 44-page publication released in 2009. It provides "recommendations for nursing home employers to help reduce the number and severity of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) in their facilities." It has nothing to do with DEIA. On page 10, however, it notes that "development of MSDs may be related to genetic causes, gender, age, and other factors." The single use of the word "gender" appears to have flagged the publication for deletion and destruction.

Another purged publication, "Small Entity Compliance Guide for the Respiratory Protection Standard," contains the sentence, "[t]he new computer software reflects the concept of government leadership through collaboration with diverse technical organizations." It has nothing to do with DEIA.

At this point I don't think the US has much credibility to salvage, Brookings.

The Trump administration wants the Supreme Court to permit the firing of the head of the federal agency dedicated to protecting whistleblowers, according to documents obtained Sunday that would mark the first appeal to the justices since President Donald Trump took office.

The emergency appeal is the start of what probably will be a steady stream from lawyers for the Republican president and his administration seeking to undo lower court rulings that have slowed his second-term agenda.

It wasn’t about playing God. Rather, it was a better way to feed the world.

That’s how a biotech company called AquaBounty described its AquAdvantage salmon, the first genetically modified animal approved by the federal government for human consumption. By adding a gene from Chinook salmon to Atlantic salmon and using DNA sequences from eel-like ocean pout as a “growth promoter,” the company said its salmon could grow twice as fast.

The silvery superfish is indistinguishable from other Atlantic salmon, the company said, but, with freshwater tanks and less feed, it can reach market size sooner than its conventional cousins. No ocean required.

But it was all easier said than done. After decades of backlash, boycotts and persistent financial losses, on top of the regulatory slog, AquaBounty hooked its hopes for the future on a village in Ohio with an enterprising name — Pioneer — and an accommodating mayor, Ed Kidston.

Citations Needed podcast did a Patreon members-only segment about it: News Brief: Musk Goes Full Alex Jones as Media Belatedly Mentions the Dreaded "I" Word

In this Patreon-only News Brief, we discuss the latest in Elon Musk's rightwing coup of the regulatory state, how a couple of outlets are beginning to slowly, coyly mention DOGE's ideological agenda, and how Musk and Trump have successfully built an alternative faux populist universe propped up by dishonesty and conspiratorial mud-slinging—exploiting Democrats' insistence on being the party of legal formalism and the status quo.

Almost $500 million in food aid is at risk of spoilage as it sits in ports, ships and warehouses after funding for the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, was paused by the Trump administration, according to a Feb. 10 report from a government watchdog.

The report from USAID's inspector general highlighted the risks of "safeguarding and distribution" of $8.2 billion in unspent humanitarian aid after the Trump administration ordered almost all staff to be placed on leave and ordered a review of U.S. foreign assistance programs.

The FBI was not pleased. There were mentions of the agency in documents connected to an upcoming forensics conference that it deemed disparaging. So in the weeks before President Donald Trump took office and issued an executive order barring censorship by federal government employees, the FBI set out to do just that.

In mid-December, according to documents obtained by The Intercept, Ted Hunt, a senior policy adviser to the FBI crime lab, approached the president of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences — the nation’s premiere umbrella organization for scientists, academics, and attorneys practicing, researching, and litigating forensic science issues — with complaints and a demand.

According to the documents, Hunt argued that the AAFS should excise certain references to the FBI from two workshops scheduled for the organization’s annual conference, to be held later this month in Baltimore. One of the apparently offensive presentations was titled, “Taking on the FBI.”

In an email memo addressed to the AAFS Board of Directors, the chair of the conference workshops wrote that Hunt also complained about one of the workshop presenters, a former DNA analyst turned defense expert named Tiffany Roy who regularly challenges the work of front-line DNA practitioners working in government labs across the country, including at the FBI. According to the memo, Hunt told AAFS representatives, including its board president, that the agency was upset that Roy would be given any platform at the conference.

If the AAFS failed to take action, sources told The Intercept, Hunt told the Academy brass that the FBI, whose forensics leaders and front-line practitioners regularly attend the gathering, would boycott the organization’s famed annual meeting.