CURRENT EVENTS - May 8-11


“… Cameron Hamilton, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, was escorted out of FEMA’s headquarters on Thursday, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation.

… For months, both Trump and Noem, whose Department of Homeland Security oversees FEMA, have called for the agency to be “eliminated.” On Tuesday, Noem reaffirmed that stance when she took questions from the same House committee.

“President Trump has been very clear since the beginning that he believes that FEMA and its response in many, many circumstances has failed the American people, and that FEMA, as it exists today, should be eliminated in empowering states to respond to disasters with federal government support.” Noem told the committee.

Hamilton struck a starkly different tone in his testimony. He repeatedly praised FEMA’s staff – calling them “one of the greatest workforces in the entire federal government” – stressing that his goal is to cut bureaucratic red tape and refocus the agency and its budget on its core mission of delivering assistance to survivors after only the most devastating natural disasters, shifting responsibility for smaller disasters onto the states.

“The (FEMA) workforce is tremendous and amazing, and they do a lot of great work, but there’s also systems and processes that are completely antiquated and have to be improved.” Hamilton said.

“FEMA is all too often used by states and public officials as a financial backstop for routine issues that frankly should be handled locally. This misalignment has fostered a culture of dependency, waste, inefficiency, while also delaying crucial aid to Americans who are in genuine need.”

CNN previously reported that Hamilton was given a lie detector test just days after taking part in a meeting with top DHS officials for a policy discussion on the future of FEMA and how to potentially dismantle the agency. That closed-door meeting was reported by CNN and other media outlets. At least a dozen other FEMA officials have also been polygraphed by DHS in recent weeks, primarily for alleged media leaks.“

Kristi Noem Installs New FEMA Chief After Ousting Cameron Hamilton​

David Richardson, a senior official at DHS, will be taking over the agency​



“… David Richardson, a senior official at DHS, will be taking over the agency as administrator, said Tricia McLaughlin, spokeswoman for DHS, when asked about Hamilton’s departure. …”
 
Jeanine Pirro might lead the Trump nominees/appointees in being incompetent. Also, she’s 73 and I doubt she’s practiced law in 20+ years.
But she loves to go an air at Fox drunk as a skunk so she and Pete Hedgehog could get together each morning and share a couple of pitchers of Bloody Marys at Founding Farmers before stumbling off to work
 
A group of friends flew into El Paso today, rented a car and began driving to Marfa for a wedding this weekend. They came upon an odd checkpoint on the highway in a small town called Sierra Blanca. They were removed from the vehicle, placed in a small room and interrogated on what they were doing, where they came from, where they’re going. Their bags were emptied and searched. The car was searched. One had to produce a copy of her prescription to keep some drugs in her baggage. They were eventually allowed to leave. They’re all white. Imagine if they were brown.

Border Patrol.

Man, fuck that shit. You MAGA losers are unhinged. Giving away our rights to please an orange deranged narcissist.
 
A group of friends flew into El Paso today, rented a car and began driving to Marfa for a wedding this weekend. They came upon an odd checkpoint on the highway in a small town called Sierra Blanca. They were removed from the vehicle, placed in a small room and interrogated on what they were doing, where they came from, where they’re going. Their bags were emptied and searched. The car was searched. One had to produce a copy of her prescription to keep some drugs in her baggage. They were eventually allowed to leave. They’re all white. Imagine if they were brown.

Border Patrol.

Man, fuck that shit. You MAGA losers are unhinged. Giving away our rights to please an orange deranged narcissist.
Well, it’s Texas.
 
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“… In November, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, now the chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, called on the NTIA to pause the Digital Equity Act program aimed at nonprofits. He argued they were discriminatory because they target projects that seek to boost broadband adoption in minority communities, among other groups like the elderly, low-income, rural Americans, and veterans.

The law standing up the program specified the “covered populations” that funding would be aimed at, including racial and ethnic minorities. …”

 
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“… In November, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, now the chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, called on the NTIA to pause the Digital Equity Act program aimed at nonprofits. He argued they were discriminatory because they target projects that seek to boost broadband adoption in minority communities, among other groups like the elderly, low-income, rural Americans, and veterans.

The law standing up the program specified the “covered populations” that funding would be aimed at, including racial and ethnic minorities. …”

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“… Solicitor General John Sauer filed an emergency appeal Thursday seeking to lift a lower court order that blocks the administration from ending the “parole” program for people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

Sauer argues that a federal judge in Boston erred last month when she ruled that immigrants in the program were entitled to a case-by-case review before their legal status in the U.S. was revoked. U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, an Obama appointee, temporarily blocked Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s March order that sought to end the legal status within weeks for all 532,000 people admitted under the program.
Sauer said Talwani had improperly interfered with a policy choice that should be left up to the executive branch.

“That discretionary rescission of a discretionary benefit should have been the end of the matter: Congress reserved those decisions exclusively to the Secretary, who weighed foreign-policy objectives and other factors and rendered her decision,” Sauer wrote.

The Trump administration’s only direct ask in the appeal is for the high court to temporarily pause Talwani’s ruling. That would allow the administration to cancel the parole program — and potentially revoke the immigrants’ legal status — while litigation continues in the lower courts.“
 

Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, used the same easily cracked password for different online accounts over a period of years, according to leaked records reviewed by WIRED. Following her participation in a Signal group chat in which sensitive details of a military operation were unwittingly shared with a journalist, the revelation raises further questions about the security practices of the US spy chief.

WIRED reviewed Gabbard's passwords using databases of material leaked online created by the open-source intelligence firms District 4 Labs and Constella Intelligence. Gabbard served in Congress from 2013 to 2021, during which time she sat on the Armed Services Committee, its Subcommittee on Intelligence and Special Operations, and the Foreign Affairs Committee, giving her access to sensitive information. Material from breaches shows that during a portion of this period, she used the same password across multiple email addresses and online accounts, in contravention of well-established best practices for online security. (There is no indication that she used the password on government accounts.)
 
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