CDC is updating the chart again after the long government shutdown.
No ads, no remuneration. Die Gedanken sind wirklich frei. The tyrant "has desires which he is utterly unable to satisfy, and has more wants than any one, and is truly poor, if you know how to inspect the whole soul of him: all his life long he is beset with fear and is full of convulsions, and distractions, even as the State which he resembles."
... “That doesn’t exist,” Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor told Reuters earlier this month when asked about DOGE’s status.
It is no longer a “centralized entity,” Kupor added, in the first public comments from the Trump administration on the end of DOGE. ...
A government-wide hiring freeze - another hallmark of DOGE - is also over, Kupor said. ... “There is no target around reductions” anymore, Kupor said. ...
I don't think Senator Slotkin goes far enough in her comments. She's worried only about U.S. military possibly firing their weapons at Americans in our streets on our soil when the rule of law we agree to with the nations of the world is under attack by Trump in the Caribbean when he murders noncombatants.
Somebody's giving illegal orders to kill these people, and the buck stops with Trump.
"You tarnish us, we'll tarnish you. And after all we've done for you, too."
... Howell, a former Homeland Security official in the first Trump administration, criticizes the lack of data being shared by DHS to back up its claims that 600,000 deportations will be carried out by the end of the year. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the main agency responsible for these removals, has stopped publishing the monthly data to show this progress. There hasn't been a monthly release since Trump took office. "Without access to the data, it is impossible to ascertain how the DHS is supporting its varying claims of deportation and self-deportation numbers," the report says. ...
More.
Even at 600k per year, the Trump administration will fall short of removing 11 million illegal aliens by 8.6 million by the time it is over.
And they'll waste $85 billion while doing it.
"The American people voted for mass deportations. They're getting mass communications instead," the report's author Mike Howell tells Axios.
Maybe AXIOS released the plan in the first place to sabotage the whole thing, to which I say Hurrah!
Ukraine peace plan in chaos after Marco Rubio 'told senators Russia had authored proposal'
Marco Rubio was forced on the defensive last night after a bipartisan group of senators claimed he told them the US's peace plan for Ukraine was authored by Russia.
The US Secretary of State denied their account, with a spokesman calling it "blatantly false", but the dispute threatens to derail President Trump's push for a peace deal to be achieved this week.
Rubio took the extraordinary step of suggesting online that the senators were mistaken, even though they said he was their source for the information.
The widely leaked 28-point US-backed peace plan was, according to the White House, the result of a month of work between Rubio and Trump envoy Steve Witkoff along with input from what it said was both Ukrainians and Russians.
The plan accepts many Russian demands that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has categorically rejected on dozens of occasions, including giving up large pieces of territory.
Trump says he wants Ukraine to accept the plan by late next week.
"This administration was not responsible for this release in its current form," said Republican Mike Rounds from South Dakota, speaking at a security conference in Canada. "They want to utilize it as a starting point."
Rounds said "it looked more like it was written in Russian to begin with." ...
Tommy Pigott, a State Department spokesperson, said the senators' account was "blatantly false." ...
More:
White House blew past legal concerns in deadly strikes on drug boats
... In recent weeks, junior officers in the military, fearing potential legal exposure, asked military lawyers, known as judge advocates general, for written sign-off before taking part in strikes, said two people familiar with the matter. It does not appear that such memos were furnished. ...
In an interview with Brian Kilmeade, who said on air that we should just kill the homeless.
They don't believe in the rule of law.
They are a law unto themselves, no different than Democrats have been.
Our country is lost.
Trump's stupid November 2016 Contract With The American Voter had 28 points, too, remember?
The first thing on that list was "impose term limits on all members of Congress" and the last ten things started with the words "work with Congress".
This peace plan is just the banal repurposing of that template, same as with Gaza, filled with more surrender to Russia Russia Russia and more Pie In The Sky than gramma can bake.
The unseriousness is off the charts.
AXIOS had the scoop here:
1. Ukraine's sovereignty will be confirmed.
[What, like the 1994 Budapest Memorandum ROFLMAO?]
2. A comprehensive non-aggression agreement will be concluded between Russia, Ukraine and Europe. All ambiguities of the last 30 years will be considered settled.
[LOL, they're going to wave a magic wand and start over with a blank slate. Cue Burt The Invisible from Soap.]
3. It is expected that Russia will not invade neighboring countries and NATO will not expand further.
[Sure, sure. In your dreams, pal. This was definitely written by Trump at 3AM]
4. A dialogue will be held between Russia and NATO, mediated by the United States, to resolve all security issues and create conditions for de-escalation in order to ensure global security and increase opportunities for cooperation and future economic development.
[ALL issues, lol.]
5. Ukraine will receive reliable security guarantees.
[Like from God maybe?]
6. The size of the Ukrainian Armed Forces will be limited to 600,000 personnel.
[I'll take Nation Building for $1,000, Alex.]
7. Ukraine agrees to enshrine in its constitution that it will not join NATO, and NATO agrees to include in its statutes a provision that Ukraine will not be admitted in the future.
[Ukraine misbehaved in class and has to write "I will not join NATO" on the blackboard 100 times after school.]
8. NATO agrees not to station troops in Ukraine.
[Watch me herd cats!]
9. European fighter jets will be stationed in Poland.
[There are no European fighter jets.]
10. The U.S. guarantee:
[What if Russia launches missiles at Kyiv, which happens every goddamn day?]
11. Ukraine is eligible for EU membership and will receive short-term preferential access to the European market while this issue is being considered.
[Do they get frequent flyer miles with that?]
12. A powerful global package of measures to rebuild Ukraine, including but not limited to:
[All this new spending by a bankrupt country already $38.2 trillion in debt]
13. Russia will be reintegrated into the global economy:
[Russia will never pay for its war crimes in Ukraine.]
14. Frozen funds will be used as follows:
[The G7 holds $300 billion in frozen Russian assets, hardly enough for the current estimates for rebuilding Ukraine, which run from $524 billion to $1.1 trillion.]
15. A joint American-Russian working group on security issues will be established to promote and ensure compliance with all provisions of this agreement.
["Ensure compliance" how?]
16. Russia will enshrine in law its policy of non-aggression towards Europe and Ukraine.
[Molotov-Ribbentrop anyone?]
17. The United States and Russia will agree to extend the validity of treaties on the non-proliferation and control of nuclear weapons, including the START I Treaty.
[This peace plan is the everything bagel.]
18. Ukraine agrees to be a non-nuclear state in accordance with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
[This worked out great the last time in 1994, didn't it?]
19. The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant will be launched under the supervision of the IAEA, and the electricity produced will be distributed equally between Russia and Ukraine — 50:50.
[Like Chernobyl, right?]
20. Both countries undertake to implement educational programs in schools and society aimed at promoting understanding and tolerance of different cultures and eliminating racism and prejudice:
[Mighty woke of you.]
21. Territories:
[Trump is Chamberlain ceding the Sudetenland to Adolf Hitler in 1938.]
22. After agreeing on future territorial arrangements, both the Russian Federation and Ukraine undertake not to change these arrangements by force. Any security guarantees will not apply in the event of a breach of this commitment.
23. Russia will not prevent Ukraine from using the Dnieper River for commercial activities, and agreements will be reached on the free transport of grain across the Black Sea.
24. A humanitarian committee will be established to resolve outstanding issues:
25. Ukraine will hold elections in 100 days.
26. All parties involved in this conflict will receive full amnesty for their actions during the war and agree not to make any claims or consider any complaints in the future.
[In other words there will be no Nuremberg Tribunal for the Butchers of Bucha.]
27. This agreement will be legally binding. Its implementation will be monitored and guaranteed by the Peace Council, headed by President Donald J. Trump. Sanctions will be imposed for violations.
[Who will head it in 2029?]
28. Once all parties agree to this memorandum, the ceasefire will take effect immediately after both sides retreat to agreed points to begin implementation of the agreement.