USA News and Discussions

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Kash Patel to be named acting ATF chief, sources say

Source: CBS News

February 22, 2025 / 7:56 PM EST

Kash Patel, the newly sworn-in director of the FBI, is expected to also be named acting head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, two Justice Department sources confirmed to CBS News Saturday.

Following a lengthy process, Patel, a Trump loyalist, was confirmed by the Senate Thursday as FBI director in a slim 51-49 margin, with two Republican senators joining all Democrats in dissent.

The ATF, like the FBI, is an agency within the Justice Department. It has more than 5,200 employees and a budget of approximately $1.6 billion. One of its primary responsibilities is to investigate gun crimes. Patel would replace Marvin Richardson, the ATF's current acting director. ABC News was first to report the move.

Steven Dettelbach, who served as ATF director under former President Joe Biden, told CBS News in an interview last month, just prior to stepping down, that he believed the agency would be a target for cuts from the Trump administration.

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kash-patel ... f-sources/

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‘This is democracy’: Crowd overflows Belton coffee shop during event with US Rep. Mark Alford

https://www.kshb.com/news/local-news/th ... ark-alford

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See also: https://standupforscience2025.org/

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ICE operation in Alhambra disrupted by local activists

https://www.foxla.com/news/ice-raid-alh ... -activists

NYT- Trump Aims at Chinese Shipping, Risking Higher Costs for U.S. Importers

https://archive.is/pVcIV

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Social Security Administration Could Cut Half Its Workforce

https://prospect.org/health/social-secu ... workforce/

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More on that by CNN:

https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/27/politics ... index.html

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Trump plans to sign executive order making English the official language of the U.S.

Source: CBS News

Updated on: February 28, 2025 / 10:15 AM EST

President Trump is planning to sign an executive order making English the official language of the United States, multiple White House sources tell CBS News. English is already the most commonly used language in the country, but the U.S. has never had an official language at the federal level.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the president's plan to sign the executive order.

The English language executive order will rescind a federal mandate that requires agencies and other recipients of federal funding to provide language assistance to non-English speakers, a mandate issued by former President Bill Clinton. Agencies, however, will still be able to provide documents and services in other languages. The Trump administration says its goal is to "promote unity, establish efficiency in the government, and provide a pathway to civic engagement."

Republican members of Congress have tried unsuccessfully to pass legislation declaring English the official language. Many states have designated English as their official language. On the campaign trail last year, Mr. Trump decried other languages entering the U.S.

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-exec ... -language/

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This article is slightly dated, but things are moving so quickly that it is easy to overlook important developments.

U.S. Science Is Under Attack
by Dr. Alfredo Carpineti
February 5, 2025

Introduction:

(IFL Science)We are just over two weeks out from the beginning of Trump’s second presidency, and scientific research in the United States is in complete disarray. A series of executive orders that have been described as illegal, violating the constitution, and segregationist have sown chaos in the many scientific funding agencies across the US.

Executive orders (EO) have covered a wide range of topics of scientific interest, from taking the US out of the Paris Agreement and World Health Organization to the EO on trans and non-binary people. There have been immediate restrictions on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) causing serious impacts, as well as a temporary freeze on funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), on grants that had already been awarded as well as future ones.

The funding freeze by the NSF continued even after the Trump Administration rescinded its memo calling for a pause in all federal grant spending. The reason for this had to do with the President's order to target any efforts to increase diversity in science or make science more accessible for people with disabilities.

"All NSF grantees must comply with these executive orders [...] by ceasing all non-compliant grant and award activities," the NSF said in a statement. "In particular, this may include […] grant activity that uses or promotes the use of diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) principles and frameworks".

Read more here: https://www.iflscience.com/us-science- ... ck-77917

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One thing I think is behind the recent massive push toward de-regulation in the U.S. is a change in basic views on regulations on the part of elites. I think in the twentieth century a lot of business types actually supported regulation because:

1) They wanted to head off calls for more extreme regulation.

2) They were concerned about basic threats to their industries posed by negative outcomes related to the lack of regulation. Many feared that the worse actors in their industry would ruin the image of the general public of the entire industry.

Today, the worse actors are often also the most powerful. So, they have a radically different view of regulation. Important to keep in mind in pursuing boycott tactics.

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Exclusive: US intel shows Russia and China are attempting to recruit disgruntled federal employees, sources say

https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/28/politics ... index.html

man gabbard stupid

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NYT- Three Former E.P.A. Leaders: You’ll Miss It When It’s Gone

https://archive.ph/36BdF

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NYT- Three Former E.P.A. Leaders: You’ll Miss It When It’s Gone

https://archive.ph/36BdF

This is yet another example of the need to avoid the denial mechanism of "the Trump administration's actions do not affect my life." That statement is true until it isn't. It is not just suddenly finding oneself in some oppressed minority group due to race, class, ethnicity, or religion (or lack of religion). It is also the possibility that one may wake up one day to realize that the very water you drink or the air you breath is laden with poison. An avoidable event if there is an active and effective EPA in place.

There is also the possibility of suffering from some climate change related disaster such as a forest fire, flooding, hurricane or tornado. Not just that the lack of positive action to address the causes of climate change will over the long term allow the problem to become worse, but also because of the crippling of agencies such as FEMA that might otherwise help your community cope with such disasters. One should think long and hard before coming to the conclusion that a Trump presidency will not affect your life.

Aside from the environment, there is also the issue of the health of the U.S. economy. That can affect your employment status and/or purchasing power. Perhaps not immediately, but over time.

Nobody is safe from the ravages of the Trump administration. An administration that seems hell bent on attacking our health and our well-being. Perhaps just for the hell of it, or to afford yet more tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy that increasingly seem to have more money than they know what to do with, except maybe to indulge in space tourism or shift government resources toward the pursuit of quixotic dreams of colonizing Mars.

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To support Trump or not vote Harris honestly takes very selective not caring.

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US CHIPS Act office lays off about a third of its staff, sources say

Source: Reuters

March 4, 2025 10:23 AM EST Updated 4 hours ago

WASHINGTON, March 4 (Reuters) - About one-third of the staff in the U.S. Commerce Department office overseeing $39 billion of manufacturing subsidies for chipmakers was laid off this week, two sources familiar with the situation said.

The Commerce Department did not respond to requests for comment.

Reuters reported last month that the new Trump administration, which has embarked on a dramatic overhaul of the federal government, is reviewing the projects awarded under the 2022 U.S. CHIPS Act. That law is meant to boost U.S. domestic semiconductor output with grants and loans to companies across the chip industry.

About 40 staff members lost their jobs on Monday, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The staffers, who had probationary status, received emails at about 2 p.m. EST on Monday that they were terminated and they were out the door by 4 p.m., one of the people said.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-chi ... 025-03-04/

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Five Eyes alliance' crumbling after UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada give US cold shoulder

No decision on reversing this alliance has been made – but members are understood to be looking at ways to revise current protocols.

‘Those discussions are already happening,’ said an NBC source with direct knowledge of the discussions.

The extent of a US policy change toward Russia remains unclear, but the pause of US military aid and intelligence to Ukraine has given allies a clear signal whose side Trump is on.

https://metro.co.uk/2025/03/06/five-eye ... -22679726/