CURRENT EVENTS - TAX DAY - April 20

[nycfan]

Yeah, but who will enforce it?

This Administration has seized the entire administrative state, peopled it with bad faith actors loyal to one man and made clear that the law is only a nuisance for their own designs but also a weapon to be used against their opponents.

The skirmishes in court are necessary but so long as the Federal government is a one party state of loyal to one man and mostly protected under the capricious umbrella of presidential immunity, blind justice and equal protection under the law and efforts to observe ethical and conflict of interest standards are over.

 

[nycfan]

 

[nycfan]

“… After 60 days, the officials said, American commanders will assess whether to make additional cuts. Commanders have recommended keeping at least 500 U.S. troops in Syria, one of the officials said.

President Trump, however, has expressed deep skepticism about keeping any U.S. troops in the country. At least for now the reductions that started on Thursday are based on ground commanders’ recommendations to close and consolidate bases, and were approved by the Pentagon and its Central Command, the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters.

…
In their reduced numbers, American troops, which include conventional soldiers as well as Special Forces, will continue to provide counterterrorism assistance to the S.D.F. and help operate several detention camps, the two senior U.S. officials said.

Between 9,000 and 10,000 Islamic State fighters and about 39,000 of their family members are detained in northeastern Syria. U.S. intelligence officials, presenting their annual worldwide threat assessment last month in Congress, concluded that ISIS would try to exploit the end of the Assad government to free prisoners and to revive its ability to carry out attacks. The escape of prisoners would not only add to the group’s numbers, but also provide a propaganda coup.

The United States announced late last year that its military had roughly doubled the number of its troops on the ground in Syria, to 2,000, to help deal with a growing threat from the Islamic State and from Iran-backed militias that have attacked American bases. …”

 

[nycfan]

“… After 60 days, the officials said, American commanders will assess whether to make additional cuts. Commanders have recommended keeping at least 500 U.S. troops in Syria, one of the officials said.

President Trump, however, has expressed deep skepticism about keeping any U.S. troops in the country. At least for now the reductions that started on Thursday are based on ground commanders’ recommendations to close and consolidate bases, and were approved by the Pentagon and its Central Command, the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters.

…
In their reduced numbers, American troops, which include conventional soldiers as well as Special Forces, will continue to provide counterterrorism assistance to the S.D.F. and help operate several detention camps, the two senior U.S. officials said.

Between 9,000 and 10,000 Islamic State fighters and about 39,000 of their family members are detained in northeastern Syria. U.S. intelligence officials, presenting their annual worldwide threat assessment last month in Congress, concluded that ISIS would try to exploit the end of the Assad government to free prisoners and to revive its ability to carry out attacks. The escape of prisoners would not only add to the group’s numbers, but also provide a propaganda coup.

The United States announced late last year that its military had roughly doubled the number of its troops on the ground in Syria, to 2,000, to help deal with a growing threat from the Islamic State and from Iran-backed militias that have attacked American bases. …”

“”… Many important Middle East policy positions remain unfilled on the White House’s National Security Council, as well as at the State Department and the Pentagon, slowing any comprehensive Syria policy review, officials and independent analysts said.“

 

[altmin]

And that will shut down trade with a lot of countries for American goods.

 

[mpaer]

And that will shut down trade with a lot of countries for American goods.

Great point-Likewise our exported lumber needs to be inspected for "bugs" etc Countries will not buy goods without such inspections

 

[nycfan]

Former Trump Official Targeted With Government Probe Vows to Fight​

Chris Krebs, the top cybersecurity official in Trump’s first term, resigned from his private-sector job​

—> https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy...cb?st=gSu3jr&reflink=mobilewebshare_permalink

“… Chris Krebs, one of Trump’s top cybersecurity officials in his first term, will resign from a leading security firm to more freely challenge the White House, he said. He joins a small but growing list of universities and law firms seeking to push back on Trump’s efforts to use the office of the president to attack critics and opponents.

“It’s about the government pulling its levers to punish dissent, to go after corporate interests and corporate relationships,” Krebs said in his first interview since Trump issued a memo targeting him by name.

“It’s the same thing we’ve seen with the law firms, they’ve gone after clearances, they’ve gone after contracts. It’s a novel and expansive strategy they are taking on and it should concern everyone.”

… Last week, Trump signed a memo calling for his administration to investigate Krebs, and suspend any active security clearances held by Krebs and SentinelOne, the prominent cybersecurity firm where he worked.

… In the Oval Office last week, Trump called Krebs a “wiseguy” and mocked an appearance he had seen from Krebs on TV.

“He came out right after the election, which was a rigged election, a badly rigged election…this guy Krebs was saying, ‘Oh, the election was great, it was great,’” Trump said before signing the order. …”

 

[nycfan]

Former Trump Official Targeted With Government Probe Vows to Fight​

Chris Krebs, the top cybersecurity official in Trump’s first term, resigned from his private-sector job​

—> https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy...cb?st=gSu3jr&reflink=mobilewebshare_permalink

“… Chris Krebs, one of Trump’s top cybersecurity officials in his first term, will resign from a leading security firm to more freely challenge the White House, he said. He joins a small but growing list of universities and law firms seeking to push back on Trump’s efforts to use the office of the president to attack critics and opponents.

“It’s about the government pulling its levers to punish dissent, to go after corporate interests and corporate relationships,” Krebs said in his first interview since Trump issued a memo targeting him by name.

“It’s the same thing we’ve seen with the law firms, they’ve gone after clearances, they’ve gone after contracts. It’s a novel and expansive strategy they are taking on and it should concern everyone.”

… Last week, Trump signed a memo calling for his administration to investigate Krebs, and suspend any active security clearances held by Krebs and SentinelOne, the prominent cybersecurity firm where he worked.

… In the Oval Office last week, Trump called Krebs a “wiseguy” and mocked an appearance he had seen from Krebs on TV.

“He came out right after the election, which was a rigged election, a badly rigged election…this guy Krebs was saying, ‘Oh, the election was great, it was great,’” Trump said before signing the order. …”

“… Krebs said he understood why some have kept a low profile and tried not to further anger the president. But he said he disagreed with that approach.

“I don’t think this lay-low-and-hope-this-blows-over approach is the right one for the moment we’re in,” he said.

The order targeting Krebs immediately upended his life. Krebs said he was sitting at home working at his desk when he received a flurry of texts last week that Trump was signing a memo criticizing him. He turned on the TV to see what was happening.

“My reaction was similar to 2020 when I got fired. It was like, ‘What? No. That can’t be real.’ But here we are,” he said.

The last time he was sanctioned by a government, the former cybersecurity official said it was less surprising. “I was sanctioned by the Russians and I’ve been effectively sanctioned by my own government as well,” he said. …”

 

[nycfan]

“… Krebs said he understood why some have kept a low profile and tried not to further anger the president. But he said he disagreed with that approach.

“I don’t think this lay-low-and-hope-this-blows-over approach is the right one for the moment we’re in,” he said.

The order targeting Krebs immediately upended his life. Krebs said he was sitting at home working at his desk when he received a flurry of texts last week that Trump was signing a memo criticizing him. He turned on the TV to see what was happening.

“My reaction was similar to 2020 when I got fired. It was like, ‘What? No. That can’t be real.’ But here we are,” he said.

The last time he was sanctioned by a government, the former cybersecurity official said it was less surprising. “I was sanctioned by the Russians and I’ve been effectively sanctioned by my own government as well,” he said. …”

“… Krebs said he knew he had to resign from SentinelOne because the order would hurt the company’s business. Krebs, a cybersecurity expert who worked in both the first Trump and George W. Bush administrations as well as at Microsoft, said he knew he immediately needed to hire high-powered lawyers.

“It is effectively the executive branch’s bill of attainder,” he said. A bill of attainder imposes punishment on someone without a trial. They were banned under the Constitution amid American objections to British attainder laws. …”

 

[nycfan]

The State Department is changing its mind about what it calls human rights​

https://www.npr.org/2025/04/18/nx-s1-5357511/state-department-human-rights-report-cuts

“The Trump administration is substantially scaling back the State Department's annual reports on international human rights to remove longstanding critiques of abuses such as harsh prison conditions, government corruption and restrictions on participation in the political process, NPR has learned.

Despite decades of precedent, the reports, which are meant to inform Congressional decisions on foreign aid allocations and security assistance, will no longer call governments out for such things as denying freedom of movement and peaceful assembly. They won't condemn retaining political prisoners without due process or restrictions on "free and fair elections."

Forcibly returning a refugee or asylum seeker to a home country where they may face torture or persecution will no longer be highlighted, nor will serious harassment of human rights organizations.

According to an editing memo and other documents obtained by NPR, State Department employees are directed to "streamline" the reports by stripping them down to only that which is legally required.

The memo says the changes aim to align the reports with current U.S. policy and "recently issued Executive Orders."

Officially called "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices," the annual documents are required, by statute, to be a "full and complete report regarding the status of internationally recognized human rights."

Human rights defenders say the cuts amount to an American retreat from its position as the world's human rights watchdog. …”

 

[finesse]

The State Department is changing its mind about what it calls human rights​

https://www.npr.org/2025/04/18/nx-s1-5357511/state-department-human-rights-report-cuts

“The Trump administration is substantially scaling back the State Department's annual reports on international human rights to remove longstanding critiques of abuses such as harsh prison conditions, government corruption and restrictions on participation in the political process, NPR has learned.

Despite decades of precedent, the reports, which are meant to inform Congressional decisions on foreign aid allocations and security assistance, will no longer call governments out for such things as denying freedom of movement and peaceful assembly. They won't condemn retaining political prisoners without due process or restrictions on "free and fair elections."

Forcibly returning a refugee or asylum seeker to a home country where they may face torture or persecution will no longer be highlighted, nor will serious harassment of human rights organizations.

According to an editing memo and other documents obtained by NPR, State Department employees are directed to "streamline" the reports by stripping them down to only that which is legally required.

The memo says the changes aim to align the reports with current U.S. policy and "recently issued Executive Orders."

Officially called "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices," the annual documents are required, by statute, to be a "full and complete report regarding the status of internationally recognized human rights."

Human rights defenders say the cuts amount to an American retreat from its position as the world's human rights watchdog. …”

If we didn't, it would be a bit hypocritical, wouldn't it?

 

[nycfan]

With Harvard Threat, Trump Tries to Bend the I.R.S. to His Will​

Since the post-Nixon era, the Internal Revenue Service has had a degree of independence from the White House. President Trump is seeking to change that.

With Harvard Threat, Trump Tries to Bend the I.R.S. to His Will

Since the post-Nixon era, the Internal Revenue Service has had a degree of independence from the White House. President Trump is seeking to change that.

www.nytimes.com

“…President Trump has moved swiftly to suppress that independence in the first few months of his second term and, tax experts and former agency officials warn, return the I.R.S. to darker days when it was used as a political tool of the president.

His administration has decimated the ranks of I.R.S. civil servants and moved to install political allies in their place. This week, he publicly calledfor Harvard to lose its tax-exempt status, an extraordinary attempt to enlist the I.R.S. in his feud with the wealthy research university. In the Oval Office on Thursday, Mr. Trump renewed that threat and suggested that several other universities the administration has accused of antisemitism could also lose their tax-exempt status.

“Tax-exempt status, it’s a privilege, it’s really a privilege and it’s been abused by a lot more than Harvard, so we’ll see how that all works out,” he said, also mentioning Columbia and Princeton….”

 

[nycfan]

With Harvard Threat, Trump Tries to Bend the I.R.S. to His Will​

Since the post-Nixon era, the Internal Revenue Service has had a degree of independence from the White House. President Trump is seeking to change that.

With Harvard Threat, Trump Tries to Bend the I.R.S. to His Will

Since the post-Nixon era, the Internal Revenue Service has had a degree of independence from the White House. President Trump is seeking to change that.

www.nytimes.com

“…President Trump has moved swiftly to suppress that independence in the first few months of his second term and, tax experts and former agency officials warn, return the I.R.S. to darker days when it was used as a political tool of the president.

His administration has decimated the ranks of I.R.S. civil servants and moved to install political allies in their place. This week, he publicly calledfor Harvard to lose its tax-exempt status, an extraordinary attempt to enlist the I.R.S. in his feud with the wealthy research university. In the Oval Office on Thursday, Mr. Trump renewed that threat and suggested that several other universities the administration has accused of antisemitism could also lose their tax-exempt status.

“Tax-exempt status, it’s a privilege, it’s really a privilege and it’s been abused by a lot more than Harvard, so we’ll see how that all works out,” he said, also mentioning Columbia and Princeton….”

“…Federal law bars the president from ordering the I.R.S. to conduct specific tax investigations. A White House spokesman has said the agency’s scrutiny of Harvard began before the president’s social media post. Mr. Trump said Thursday that he did not believe the I.R.S. had “made a final ruling.”

… Tax experts and I.R.S. officials warn that the federal government may start to struggle to collect enough revenue if Americans start to believe the nation’s tax laws are politically compromised and weakly enforced.

… Back in office a second time, Mr. Trump has been more aggressive in trying to consolidate power of the I.R.S. During his most recent campaign, he raised the idea of abolishing the I.R.S., and not long after winning re-election, he nominated Billy Long, a former Republican congressman and political ally, to lead the agency, abandoning the norm that commissioners stay on after a change in presidents.

…In March, a Treasury official asked the I.R.S. to look into concerns from Mike Lindell, the pillow entrepreneur, about an audit he faced, according to people familiar with the matter and an email viewed by The New York Times.

… Mr. Trump is not the first president to try to use the I.R.S. to his liking.

…A difference now, historians and former I.R.S. officials said, is the brazen nature of Mr. Trump’s requests.

“Whereas White House officials were pressuring the I.R.S. to revoke the tax exemption for nonprofit organizations during the Nixon administration, you didn’t have the president going out there saying, ‘I am going to pull the tax exemption for Harvard University,’” said Joseph Thorndike, a historian for Tax Analysts. “That’s a much more direct threat than has been employed in the past. In my view, that’s a significant escalation.” …”

 

[nycfan]

 

[nycfan]

Meloni has vaulted to become the EU’s Trump Whisperer …

 

[nycfan]

Trump’s War on Measurement Means Losing Data on Drug Use, Maternal Mortality, Climate Change and More

By slashing teams that gather critical data, the administration has left the federal government with no way of understanding if policies are working — and created a black hole of information whose consequences could ripple out for decades.

www.propublica.org

“… Overlooked amid the turmoil is the fact that many of DOGE’s cuts have been targeted at a very specific aspect of the federal government: its collection and sharing of data. In agency after agency, the government is losing its capacity to measure how American society is functioning, making it much harder for elected officials or others to gauge the nature and scale of the problems we are facing and the effectiveness of solutions being deployed against them.

… The Department of Health and Human Services, now led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., laid off the 17-person team in charge of the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, which for more than five decades has tracked trends in substance abuse and mental health disorders.

The department’s Administration for Children and Families is weeks behind on the annual update of the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System, the nationwide database of child welfare cases, after layoffs effectively wiped out the team that compiles that information.

And the department has placed on leave the team that oversees the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System, a collection of survey responses from women before and after giving birth that has become a crucial tool in trying to address the country’s disconcertingly high rate of maternal mortality.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has eviscerated divisions that oversee the WISQARS database on accidental deaths and injuries — everything from fatal shootings to poisonings to car accidents — and the team that maintains AtlasPlus, an interactive tool for tracking HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.

The Environmental Protection Agency is planning to stop requiring oil refineries, power plants and other industrial facilities to measure and report their greenhouse-gas emissions, as they have done since 2010, making it difficult to know whether any of the policies meant to slow climate change and reduce disaster are effective.

The EPA has also taken down EJScreen, a mapping tool on its website that allowed people to see how much industrial pollution occurs in their community and how that compares with other places or previous years.

The Office of Homeland Security Statistics has yet to update its monthly tallies on deportations and other indices of immigration enforcement, making it difficult to judge President Donald Trump’s triumphant claims of a crackdown; the last available numbers are from November 2024, in the final months of President Joe Biden’s tenure. (“While we have submitted reports and data files for clearance, the reporting and data file posting are delayed while they are under the new administration’s review,” Jim Scheye, director of operations and reporting in the statistics unit, told ProPublica.) …”

 

[nycfan]

Trump’s War on Measurement Means Losing Data on Drug Use, Maternal Mortality, Climate Change and More

By slashing teams that gather critical data, the administration has left the federal government with no way of understanding if policies are working — and created a black hole of information whose consequences could ripple out for decades.

www.propublica.org

“… Overlooked amid the turmoil is the fact that many of DOGE’s cuts have been targeted at a very specific aspect of the federal government: its collection and sharing of data. In agency after agency, the government is losing its capacity to measure how American society is functioning, making it much harder for elected officials or others to gauge the nature and scale of the problems we are facing and the effectiveness of solutions being deployed against them.

… The Department of Health and Human Services, now led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., laid off the 17-person team in charge of the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, which for more than five decades has tracked trends in substance abuse and mental health disorders.

The department’s Administration for Children and Families is weeks behind on the annual update of the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System, the nationwide database of child welfare cases, after layoffs effectively wiped out the team that compiles that information.

And the department has placed on leave the team that oversees the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System, a collection of survey responses from women before and after giving birth that has become a crucial tool in trying to address the country’s disconcertingly high rate of maternal mortality.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has eviscerated divisions that oversee the WISQARS database on accidental deaths and injuries — everything from fatal shootings to poisonings to car accidents — and the team that maintains AtlasPlus, an interactive tool for tracking HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.

The Environmental Protection Agency is planning to stop requiring oil refineries, power plants and other industrial facilities to measure and report their greenhouse-gas emissions, as they have done since 2010, making it difficult to know whether any of the policies meant to slow climate change and reduce disaster are effective.

The EPA has also taken down EJScreen, a mapping tool on its website that allowed people to see how much industrial pollution occurs in their community and how that compares with other places or previous years.

The Office of Homeland Security Statistics has yet to update its monthly tallies on deportations and other indices of immigration enforcement, making it difficult to judge President Donald Trump’s triumphant claims of a crackdown; the last available numbers are from November 2024, in the final months of President Joe Biden’s tenure. (“While we have submitted reports and data files for clearance, the reporting and data file posting are delayed while they are under the new administration’s review,” Jim Scheye, director of operations and reporting in the statistics unit, told ProPublica.) …”

“… And, in a particularly concrete example of ceasing to measure, deep cutbacks at the National Weather Service are forcing it to reduce weather balloon launches, which gather a vast repository of second-by-second data on everything from temperature to humidity to atmospheric pressure in order to improve forecasting.

Looked at one way, the war on measurement has an obvious potential motivation: making it harder for critics to gauge fallout resulting from Trump administration layoffs, deregulation or other shifts in policy.

In some cases, the data now being jettisoned is geared around concepts or presumptions that the administration fundamentally rejects: EJScreen, for instance, stands for “environmental justice” — the effort to ensure that communities don’t suffer disproportionately from pollution and other environmental harms.

… Making the halt on data gathering more confounding, though, is the fact that, in some areas, the information at risk of being lost has been buttressing some of the administration’s own claims.

For instance, Trump and Vice President JD Vance have repeatedly cited, as an argument for tougher border enforcement, the past decade’s surge in fentanyl addiction — a trend that has been definitively captured by the national drug use survey that is now imperiled. That survey’s mental health components have also undergirded research on the threat being posed to the nation’s young people by smartphones and social media, which many conservatives have taken up as a cudgel against Big Tech.

Or take education. The administration and its conservative allies have been able to argue that Democratic-led states kept schools closed too long during the pandemic because there was nationwide data — the National Assessment of Educational Progress, aka the Nation’s Report Card — that showed greater drops in student achievement in districts that stayed closed longer.

But now NAEP is likely to be reduced in scope as part of crippling layoffs at the Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics, which has been slashed from nearly 100 employees to only three, casting into doubt the future not only of NAEP but also of a wide array of long-running longitudinal evaluations and the department’s detailed tallies of nationwide K-12 and higher education enrollment. The department did not respond to a request for comment but released a statement on Thursday saying the next round of NAEP assessments would still be held next year.

Dan Goldhaber, an education researcher at the University of Washington, cast the self- defeating nature of the administration’s war on educational assessment in blunt terms: “The irony here is that if you look at some of the statements around the Department of Education, it’s, ‘We’ve invested X billion in the department and yet achievement has fallen off a cliff.’ But the only reason we know that is because of the NAEP data collection effort!” …”

 

[altmin]

Also, what if this was the brain worm's plan all along? Get RFK jr in charge of food safety so that brain worms are no longer being screened out and then the parasite takes over the population. I am pretty sure that was basically the plot of the Peacemaker tv show.

 

[nrsair]

RFK’s big thing was that he wanted to clean up the food supply! That was going to be the one positive aspect of him at HHS, had he held to it. What a fucking stooge.

 

[Silence Dogood]