Politics & Stuff

[Vesper 29,376]

Trump now thinks he is king of the world.... utter madness inbound

 

US tells French companies to comply with Donald Trump’s anti-diversity order

Move signals push by the American president to widen his ideological campaign abroad

 

https://archive.ph/GIae3

 

The Trump administration has sent a letter to some large French companies warning them to comply with an executive order banning diversity, equity and inclusion programmes.

 

The letter, sent by the American embassy in Paris, stated that Trump’s executive order applied to companies outside the US if they were a supplier or service provider to the American government, according to a person familiar with the matter.

 

The embassy also sent a questionnaire that ordered the companies to attest to their compliance. The document, which the Financial Times has seen, is titled “certification regarding compliance with applicable federal anti-discrimination law”.

 

The document says “Department of State contractors must certify that they do not operate any programs promoting DEI that violate any applicable anti-discrimination laws and agree that such certification is material for purposes of the government’s payment decision and therefore subject to the False Claims Act.”

 

The documents appear to signal that the Trump administration is widening its campaign against DEI to foreign companies after launching a crackdown against US media groups such as Disney. 

 

A senior banker in Paris said he was shocked by the letter. “It’s crazy . . . but everything is now possible. The rule of the strongest now prevails.”

 

The French finance ministry expressed concerns after some of the companies involved notified it about the move.

 

“This practice reflects the values of the new US government. They are not the same as ours,” said a person close to France’s economy minister Eric Lombard. “The ministry will remind his counterparts in the US government of that.”

 

The existence of the letter was first reported by Les Échos newspaper.

 

The extraterritorial move by the US comes amid heightening tensions between the Trump administration and Europe over economic and security policy as nation pivots away from its traditional allies, especially on trade and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

 

Trump this week imposed an additional 25 per cent levy on auto sector imports into the US and has increased tariffs on European steel and aluminium imports. The EU is working on reciprocal tariffs in response, but has not yet decided which products to target.

 

Top Trump officials’ attitude towards Europe was cast into stark relief this week when messages about US attack plans in Yemen were leaked to American media. “I just hate bailing Europe out again,” vice-president JD Vance wrote in a Signal chat group. “It’s PATHETIC,” responded defence secretary Pete Hegseth.

 

France has not traditionally been a place where DEI programmes have taken root because of legal limitations on the collection of racial and ethnic data. Employers are not allowed to factor people’s origins into hiring or promotion decisions. 

 

But French companies that are potentially exposed to the US demands include aviation and defence groups, consulting providers and infrastructure companies. The FT could not immediately determine which companies had received the letter.

 

According to Les Échos, the letter concluded: “If you do not agree to sign this document, we would be grateful if you could kindly provide us with detailed reasons, which we will forward to our legal department.”

 

 

[Fulham Broadway 17,067]

23 minutes ago, Vesper said:

Trump now thinks he is king of the world.... utter madness inbound

 

US tells French companies to comply with Donald Trump’s anti-diversity order

Move signals push by the American president to widen his ideological campaign abroad

 

https://archive.ph/GIae3

 

The Trump administration has sent a letter to some large French companies warning them to comply with an executive order banning diversity, equity and inclusion programmes.

 

The letter, sent by the American embassy in Paris, stated that Trump’s executive order applied to companies outside the US if they were a supplier or service provider to the American government, according to a person familiar with the matter.

 

The embassy also sent a questionnaire that ordered the companies to attest to their compliance. The document, which the Financial Times has seen, is titled “certification regarding compliance with applicable federal anti-discrimination law”.

 

The document says “Department of State contractors must certify that they do not operate any programs promoting DEI that violate any applicable anti-discrimination laws and agree that such certification is material for purposes of the government’s payment decision and therefore subject to the False Claims Act.”

 

The documents appear to signal that the Trump administration is widening its campaign against DEI to foreign companies after launching a crackdown against US media groups such as Disney. 

 

A senior banker in Paris said he was shocked by the letter. “It’s crazy . . . but everything is now possible. The rule of the strongest now prevails.”

 

The French finance ministry expressed concerns after some of the companies involved notified it about the move.

 

“This practice reflects the values of the new US government. They are not the same as ours,” said a person close to France’s economy minister Eric Lombard. “The ministry will remind his counterparts in the US government of that.”

 

The existence of the letter was first reported by Les Échos newspaper.

 

The extraterritorial move by the US comes amid heightening tensions between the Trump administration and Europe over economic and security policy as nation pivots away from its traditional allies, especially on trade and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

 

Trump this week imposed an additional 25 per cent levy on auto sector imports into the US and has increased tariffs on European steel and aluminium imports. The EU is working on reciprocal tariffs in response, but has not yet decided which products to target.

 

Top Trump officials’ attitude towards Europe was cast into stark relief this week when messages about US attack plans in Yemen were leaked to American media. “I just hate bailing Europe out again,” vice-president JD Vance wrote in a Signal chat group. “It’s PATHETIC,” responded defence secretary Pete Hegseth.

 

France has not traditionally been a place where DEI programmes have taken root because of legal limitations on the collection of racial and ethnic data. Employers are not allowed to factor people’s origins into hiring or promotion decisions. 

 

But French companies that are potentially exposed to the US demands include aviation and defence groups, consulting providers and infrastructure companies. The FT could not immediately determine which companies had received the letter.

 

According to Les Échos, the letter concluded: “If you do not agree to sign this document, we would be grateful if you could kindly provide us with detailed reasons, which we will forward to our legal department.”

 

 

hes probably more gaga than Biden now

 

[Fulham Broadway 17,067]

Tens of thousands of unexploded US bombs in Gaza

80 million unexploded US bombs in Laos - over 300 mainly farmers and children killed by them every year. Laos women clear them by hand when found

[Fernando 6,520]

 

Don't understand what Trump wants to achieved with all these tariffs. Does not make sense these Auto Tariff to me. 

He is going to break something, maybe lead us into a recession. 

[Vesper 29,376]

1 hour ago, Fernando said:

 

Don't understand what Trump wants to achieved with all these tariffs. Does not make sense these Auto Tariff to me. 

He is going to break something, maybe lead us into a recession. 

DOGE is Slashing HHS Personnel and Health Projects. States Are Already Feeling the Strain.

State and local officials told NOTUS they’re losing critical funds.

https://www.notus.org/health-science/hhs-doge-funding-cuts-states

The Trump administration is making sweeping cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services that Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. argues will streamline the federal health infrastructure. But cutting so many programs and personnel at once could end up making America less healthy, lawmakers and state health agencies warn.

“Robert Kennedy is a hazard to our health,” Sen. Raphael Warnock told NOTUS.

As Kennedy embarks on a significant and sprawling reorganization of the country’s federal public health infrastructure, state and local officials told NOTUS they’re already worried about the consequences of the cuts he’s already made.

HHS officials cut billions of dollars in grants to state and local health agencies beginning this week as part of DOGE’s cost-cutting efforts, saying they were rescinding unspent COVID-era funding. But the terminations went far beyond the pandemic, NOTUS found. Money for substance abuse prevention, pandemic prevention research and mental health support are among the funds being cut.

In an emailed statement to NOTUS, an HHS spokesperson, Emily Hilliard, said the funding cuts were necessary to allow the department to focus on other, more pressing issues.

“The COVID-19 pandemic is over, and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago,” Hilliard wrote. “HHS is prioritizing funding projects that will deliver on President Trump’s mandate to address our chronic disease epidemic and Make America Healthy Again.”

Hilliard added that the cuts would save the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention $11.4 billion beginning 30 days after the cuts began, and termination notice issuing began on March 24.

State health agencies are already scrambling to cope with the effects of the cuts.

“This funding supports the public health work and data systems improved during the pandemic that helped California fill gaps in its existing public health infrastructure,” said Erica Pan, director of the California Department of Public Health, in an email to NOTUS. The state is working to evaluate the cuts’ effects, Pan added.

The Nevada Division of Public and Behavioral Health lost 25 employees as a result of initial cuts, a spokesperson for the department, Jesse Stone, said in an email to NOTUS. Nineteen of those employees were supporting the Nevada State Immunization Program and the Office of State Epidemiology via the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Foundation.

And South Carolina lost federal funding for four projects, including a COVID surveillance program and a program targeting vaccines for children, a spokesperson said in an email.

“This funding has been essential in supporting critical public health systems, including disease monitoring, reporting, and vaccine efforts for COVID-19 and other respiratory viruses,” a spokesperson for the Washington State Department of Health, Marisol Mata Somarribas, said in an email to NOTUS.

Cuts to the agency, its programs and the research it funds across the country have been sweeping in scope. Kennedy is overseeing the departure of over 20,000 workers — half voluntarily and half via layoffs. The reorganization would also cut the number of divisions at HHS from 28 to 15, and centralize a number of capabilities that are currently dealt with by individual agencies, including human resources, external affairs and policy. It would also create a new Administration for a Healthy America that would consolidate programs that support Kennedy’s mission of reducing chronic diseases.

HHS did not respond to a request for comment.

Beyond the cuts to state health agency funds, HHS has cut millions of dollars in funding for research into Alzheimer’s disease, cancer and HIV. Several state health departments, including those of Alabama, Mississippi, Kansas and Virginia, said in emails to NOTUS that they were still evaluating how the cuts would impact them.

DOGE has also fired National Institutes of Health staff who work to stop lab leaks and others who just aren’t at their desks. “The entire federal workforce is downsizing now, so this will be a painful period for HHS as we downsize from 82,000 to around 62,000,” Kennedy said in a video posted to social media Thursday.

Democrats in Congress are incensed by the firings at HHS.

“At the end of the day, we’re not any safer because of this,” Sen. Ruben Gallego said. “We’re getting rid of some very important staff positions that are key to our public health safety net.”

But the Republican lawmakers NOTUS spoke with voiced no such concern.

“I’m supportive of what RFK Jr. is doing,” Sen. Cynthia Lummis said. “It’s obvious to me that the agency needed restructuring.”

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, one of a handful of Republican lawmakers who met with Kennedy on Thursday morning, told NOTUS she too supported the reorganization.

“I think if we’re going to deliver a service as critical as health, we need to make sure that the dollars are getting to the person rather than blocked up into the bureaucracy,” Capito said.

“It’s tough to cut that many positions, but I think he assured us this morning that this will not result in, I mean, the goal is to maintain the good services, the good service and customer service and all that HHS provides,” she said.

[Vesper 29,376]

1 hour ago, Fernando said:

 

Don't understand what Trump wants to achieved with all these tariffs. Does not make sense these Auto Tariff to me. 

He is going to break something, maybe lead us into a recession. 

What’s Next for the Economy?

https://www.notus.org/newsletters/whats-next-for-the-economy

Today’s notice: Democrats go after Elon in Wisconsin. Confusion over FEMA’s future. Abortion opponents’ policy plan. But first: We’re gonna see what this economy can take.

Testing Economic Absorption

Public health officials in both blue and red states are worried that another round of DOGE cuts targeting jobs at HHS will likely make it harder to make America healthy again, NOTUS’ Margaret Manto and Mark Alfred report. The cuts will also put thousands of Americans out of work.

While the Trump administration insists the economy can absorb the DOGE agenda, some critics and outside observers are starting to wonder if a massive government-wide layoff affecting thousands of middle-class jobs is coming at the wrong time economically.

They’re also looking at this week’s announcement placing a 25% tariff on foreign cars — along with President Donald Trump’s planned day of tariffs on April 2 — and starting to wonder if this economy can hold much more without severe consequences.

“I don’t think it’s possible to announce sweeping tariffs and then expect a muted market reaction,” Colin Grabow, associate director at the Cato Institute’s Center for Trade Policy Studies, told NOTUS.

A collection of progressive economists and former Democratic staffers at the Groundwork Collaborative are closely following the public disclosures and earnings calls companies are required by law to share with investors. They’re starting to see Big Business plan for a painful short-term for regular Americans. “We see a lot of discussion about ‘pricing environment,’” Alex Jacquez, the group’s policy chief and a former Biden White House staffer, said of the calls. That means… prices are going up.

Jacquez, who watched Biden’s support wither away as prices rose, suggested that if things play out the way the earnings calls predict they will, this economic moment may be difficult for Trump too.

“I’ve been kind of shocked at how quickly he’s been able to flip consumer sentiment and future projections,” Jacquez said of Trump. “Fair or unfair, the reality is, people blame the guy in the big chair.”

[Fernando 6,520]

1 hour ago, Vesper said:

What’s Next for the Economy?

https://www.notus.org/newsletters/whats-next-for-the-economy

Today’s notice: Democrats go after Elon in Wisconsin. Confusion over FEMA’s future. Abortion opponents’ policy plan. But first: We’re gonna see what this economy can take.

Testing Economic Absorption

Public health officials in both blue and red states are worried that another round of DOGE cuts targeting jobs at HHS will likely make it harder to make America healthy again, NOTUS’ Margaret Manto and Mark Alfred report. The cuts will also put thousands of Americans out of work.

While the Trump administration insists the economy can absorb the DOGE agenda, some critics and outside observers are starting to wonder if a massive government-wide layoff affecting thousands of middle-class jobs is coming at the wrong time economically.

They’re also looking at this week’s announcement placing a 25% tariff on foreign cars — along with President Donald Trump’s planned day of tariffs on April 2 — and starting to wonder if this economy can hold much more without severe consequences.

“I don’t think it’s possible to announce sweeping tariffs and then expect a muted market reaction,” Colin Grabow, associate director at the Cato Institute’s Center for Trade Policy Studies, told NOTUS.

A collection of progressive economists and former Democratic staffers at the Groundwork Collaborative are closely following the public disclosures and earnings calls companies are required by law to share with investors. They’re starting to see Big Business plan for a painful short-term for regular Americans. “We see a lot of discussion about ‘pricing environment,’” Alex Jacquez, the group’s policy chief and a former Biden White House staffer, said of the calls. That means… prices are going up.

Jacquez, who watched Biden’s support wither away as prices rose, suggested that if things play out the way the earnings calls predict they will, this economic moment may be difficult for Trump too.

“I’ve been kind of shocked at how quickly he’s been able to flip consumer sentiment and future projections,” Jacquez said of Trump. “Fair or unfair, the reality is, people blame the guy in the big chair.”

Agreed the tariffs add a lot of uncertainty. 

However I think the witch hunt on musk is overblown.

Yes they might overdue it in something but I really like all the audit that they are doing to fix some stuff that is wrong 

 

 

 

[Vesper 29,376]

8 minutes ago, Fernando said:

However I think the witch hunt on musk is overblown.

he and DOGE are running riot, ripping apart the superstructure of the US fedral system of governace

he is non-elected, non-accountable, DOGE is not even an official part of the US government

there is nothing 'witch hunt' about it at all

it is reality

[Fernando 6,520]

52 minutes ago, Vesper said:

he and DOGE are running riot, ripping apart the superstructure of the US fedral system of governace

he is non-elected, non-accountable, DOGE is not even an official part of the US government

there is nothing 'witch hunt' about it at all

it is reality

The info on the corruption is very interesting to me. So I find that good. 

[Vesper 29,376]

19 minutes ago, Fernando said:

The info on the corruption is very interesting to me. So I find that good. 

The VAST majority of the actual corruption IS FROM TRUMP, MUSK, THE RW BILLIONAIRES, THE MIC, MULTIPLE MAGA POLITICIANS AND FOLLOWERS at all levels, big and small.

Musk alone is self-dealing billions in government contracts to his firms, whilst also claiming complete control to regulate most or all parts of the US government, plus he and Trump are stopping courts and regualtory agencies from pursuing his graft and other various and sundry practices

It's the fox guarding the henhouse on nuclear-powered steroids level.

 

 

[Fernando 6,520]

5 minutes ago, Vesper said:

The VAST majority of the actual corruption IS FROM TRUMP, MUSK, THE RW BILLIONAIRES, THE MIC, MULTIPLE MAGA POLITICIANS AND FOLLOWERS at all levels, big and small.

Musk alone is self-dealing billions in government contracts to his firms, whilst also claiming complete control to regulate most or all parts of the US government, plus he and Trump are stopping courts and regualtory agencies from pursuing his graft and other various and sundry practices

It's the fox guarding the henhouse on nuclear-powered steroids level.

 

 

I don't see that. They are very open about what he is doing. 

[Vesper 29,376]

8 minutes ago, Fernando said:

I don't see that. They are very open about what he is doing. 

OPEN????

LOLOLOL

You, my freind are 100 per cent gaslit, you have drunk the koolaid by the gallon.

It is actually depressing to see it real time, as I do not find you to be a stupid person by nature.

You are just wilfully blind.

 

Edited Saturday at 15:30 by Vesper

[Vesper 29,376]

and it has only gotten worse since this article from a month ago..............................

 

Elon Musk’s conflicts of interest ‘should scare every American’, experts say

Doge’s work allows Musk to keep control of companies with billions in federal contracts as he guts government agencies

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/27/elon-musk-conflicts-of-interest

Thu 27 Feb 2025

As Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk work zealously to slash tens of billions in federal spending by axing thousands of jobs and gutting some government agencies, Musk faces mounting claims he has conflicts of interest and no oversight, legal and ethics experts say.

Trump’s largest campaign donor and the world’s wealthiest man, Musk was tapped by the president to lead the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) in a radical and opaque cost-cutting drive that allows him to keep control of SpaceX, Tesla and other huge companies with billions of dollars in federal contracts.

Critics note that Doge, which Musk touted broadly to Trump in August as he was writing seven figure checks to help him win, is gutting agencies like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which has investigated complaints about the car company’s debt collection and loan policies.

Meanwhile, Tesla, SpaceX and other Musk businesses have been investigated or fined by about a dozen regulatory agencies including the CFPB, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Aviation Administration, which suggest how Doge’s work at these agencies and others could benefit Musk financially, say critics.

Both Trump and Musk have downplayed critics’ concerns about conflict of interest issues for the Doge leader, with Musk simply asserting if there’s a conflict: “I’ll recuse myself.”

For his part, Trump has moved broadly to rein in independent oversight by firing key ethics and corruption watchdogs, including the head of the office of government ethics (OGE), and at least 18 agency watchdogs known as inspectors general who have long monitored waste, fraud and abuse in spending.

Legal experts express alarm about Musk’s conflicts and lack of oversight.

“The Office of Government Ethics is needed to enforce compliance, but Trump abruptly fired the office’s director,” said Kedric Payne, the senior director of ethics at the nonpartisan Campaign legal Center. “The OGE needs a director committed to the agency’s mission to help restore public confidence that Doge is not involved in corrupt activities to benefit Musk.”

“Ethics compliance for government employees like Musk usually requires ethics lawyers providing advice and pre-approval of any actions taken that involve the employee’s financial interests,” Payne added. “It is a red flag that the White House has not said that any ethics professionals are involved in reviewing Musk’s actions.

“More transparency and accountability are needed. Voters have a right to know that government employees are serving the public interest and not their own personal interest.”

Payne’s points are underscored by the potential financial gains for Musk’s businesses as he leads Doge. SpaceX, Tesla and other Musk companies, for instance, have won at least $18bn in federal contracts from Nasa, the defense department and other agencies during the last decade. Overall, six Musk companies have been investigated or fined 32 times by 11 agencies, according to the New York Times, raising more red flags about potential conflicts involving Musk’s businesses and Doge.

“Musk is now a federal officer subject to the criminal conflict of interest statute, 18 USC 208,” said Richard Painter, George W Bush’s ethics counsel who now teaches law at the University of Minnesota. “He cannot own stock in Tesla which offers car loans and at the same time participate in dismantling the CFPB. Also he cannot have X [formerly Twitter] go into consumer finance and at the same time participate in dismantling the CFPB.”

Likewise, given Musk’s artificial intelligence business xAI, Painter stressed: “AI will have a big role in making the government more efficient, However, federal officers working for Doge cannot legally have an equity stake in an xAI company that will very likely make money from the government shifting toward AI.”

Meanwhile, Democratic state attorneys general have mounted legal challenges to Doge’s extensive agency operations and its efforts to obtain vast amounts of sensitive private data.

A lawsuit by 19 Democratic attorneys general to block Doge from accessing US treasury systems with millions of private documents about social security and tax payments won a victory on 20 February, when a New York judge upheld another court’s temporary restraining order.

Last weekend, Musk ignited a political firestorm that brought opposition from key cabinet officials at state and the FBI, when he sent an email to some two million federal employees demanding they explain what they had accomplished in the previous week by late Monday.

Musk warned darkly on his social media platform X: “failure to respond would be taken as a resignation”, which sparked more chaos and criticism. Later, the office of personnel management indicated that employees didn’t have to comply with Musk’s dictum, but with Trump’s backing, he reiterated his demands.

Other concerns about Musk’s work have been prompted by Doge claims of identifying $55bn in wasteful federal spending, a large chunk of which has been wildly exaggerated. Exhibit A: one Doge document boasted of cutting an $8bn program that turned out to be closer to $8m, according to multiple news reports.

Musk’s cost cutting modus operandi seems to be generating public dismay, according to new polls. One Washington Post-Ipsos poll showed that Americans disapprove (52 to 26) of Musk “shutting down federal government programs that he decides are unnecessary”.

Perhaps in response, Musk and the Trump administration have recently offered conflicting statements about Musk’s exact role with Doge that seem aimed at masking his unprecedented clout. One White House official in a sworn statement this month responding to a lawsuit against Doge, referred to Musk as just another “employee” with no decision-making authority.

But Musk’s enormous sway with Trump was palpable when the mogul attended and spoke at length at the first cabinet meeting on Wednesday where both he and Trump talked up their far reaching cost cutting mission; Wearing a modest “tech support” tee shirt, Musk said deferentially that “I do what the president asks.”

Earlier in a bizarre joint interview with Sean Hannity, of Fox News, on 17 February, Trump and Musk offered mutual admiration, while belittling concerns of conflicts of interest or the need for independent ethics oversight.

When Hannity asked Trump how he would react if he saw a conflict for Musk, Trump said simply: “He wouldn’t be involved.” In turn, Musk blithely claimed if there are conflicts: “I’ll recuse myself. I mean, I haven’t asked the president for anything, ever.”

At another well-choreographed event on 11 February, Musk popped up in the Oval Office with Trump nearby to boast with scant details that Doge is doing what “the people want”, with broad brush claims of cutting wasteful spending; Musk has also faced fire for making unproven and glib allegations that he’s cutting “corruption”.

Despite their cavalier attitude about the need for transparency, experts say Musk’s myriad business ties while leading Doge merit strong oversight.

“The power and influence Musk is exercising over government agencies and operations while his companies have billions of dollars in government contracts and have been subject to government regulation, financial penalties and oversight presents wide-ranging and dangerous conflicts of interest,” said former Federal Election Commission general counsel, Larry Noble, who now teaches law at American University.

Noble stressed Musk has only indicated “that he would recuse himself if he saw a conflict and Trump said he doesn’t want Musk involved in conflicts of interest.

“Given that Trump, who recently suggested he’s a king, has decimated the ethics oversight function of the government by firing inspectors general as well as the director of the office of government ethics, and Musk has been less than transparent about what he’s doing, no one who truly cares about waste, fraud and abuse should be comforted by these hollow assurances.”

Similarly, Craig Holman, an ethics expert and lobbyist with Public Citizen, stressed that six Musk companies “have been under 32 investigations by 11 governmental agencies”.

“These are the same agencies, and the same investigators, that Musk is in the process of terminating. The Federal Aviation Administration, which has fined SpaceX on numerous occasions for safety violations, is facing severe cutbacks championed by Musk,” he said.

Holman added that “the SEC is seeking $150m from Musk companies for securities violations, and is now being neutered by Musk. The National Labor Relations Board is investigating labor conditions at Musk companies, and it is now being dismantled under Musk. The CFPB has been investigating safety violations with Tesla cars and that agency is now on the chopping block.”

Payne voiced other concerns about Musk’s freewheeling Doge operation given his official role as a “special government employee”.

“Criminal law prohibits special government employees from making government decisions where they have financial conflicts of interest,” Payne said.

“Musk’s decisions may violate criminal law when they involve agencies that regulate or contract with his companies, [including] agencies such as the FAA, CFPB, EPA and defense department.”

Payne noted too that “Musk’s conflicts of interest include the potential use of his AI company to support Doge’s review of sensitive government data. The problem is that he may personally benefit if he uses government information unavailable to competitors to train his AI system. He can also become the federal government’s primary AI service provider, leading to lucrative government contracts.”

Likewise, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and a few other senators plus Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland wrote to Musk on 13 February calling for public disclosure of a confidential disclosure form that Musk was required to submit as a special government employee.

The letter charged Musk was exploiting a loophole in ethics law to avoid disclosing his financial interests. The White House has said Musk will file a confidential financial disclosure report given that he is serving as an unpaid special government employee (SGE).

But the letter stressed that “Given the scale of your power to carry out sweeping administrative policies and your vast personal financial interests, the American people deserve to know how you stand to profit from your role in the Trump Administration.”

On Tuesday, the White House indicated that a former US digital service official named Amy Gleason was Doge’s acting administrator, but just last week, Trump at a Miami financial conference declared that he had “put a man named Elon Musk in charge” of Doge.

Notably, Doge’s genesis seems to have come in a two-hour streamed interview that Trump did with Musk on X last August where Musk suggested a similar notion to Doge. Trump quickly voiced strong interest in the tech mogul’s idea as he was starting to donate a record $288m to boost Trump’s campaign.

“I need an Elon Musk – I need somebody that has a lot of strength and courage and smarts,” Trump said during their talk on X.

The next month, Trump spoke about the need for a new efficiency commission in a speech to the Economic Club of New York, prompting Musk to write on X: “I look forward to serving America if the opportunity arises. No pay, no title, no recognition is needed.”

But the recognition Musk is now receiving has become much more critical, with calls mounting for tough oversight of his conflicts and serious questions about Doge’s operations.

Matt Platkin, New Jersey’s Democratic attorney general, who has joined a few of the state AG lawsuits targeting Musk and Doge actions, said that he thinks Musk’s “conflicts are astounding and deeply concerning, and the disregard for the rule of law should scare every American”.

Edited Saturday at 15:38 by Vesper

[Fulham Broadway 17,067]

The whole Musk family - racist right wingers. Burning Jewish properties in Joburg etc

 

[Vesper 29,376]

https://newrepublic.com/article/193290/trump-musk-cancer-nuclear-bird-flu

 

Perhaps, in retrospect, the most important turning point in the evolution of the contemporary far-right elite occurred in April 2020, just a month into a pandemic that would ultimately become a mass extinction event, killing more than seven million people worldwide. Condemning public health restrictions, Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick said, “There are more important things than living.”

Patrick, who has proudly stood by that ghoulish statement, meant that the government had a higher obligation to keep the capitalist economy moving than to save any of its citizens from premature death. This sounded shocking to many people at the time, but it’s a philosophy that Trump, Musk, DOGE, and company have now fully embraced.

Our nation’s founders would not have agreed. The point of human society and government, wrote John Locke, the seventeenth-century Enlightenment theorist from whom Thomas Jefferson and other American founding thinkers got many of their ideas, was that people need to band together in community to protect each person’s “life, liberty and property.”

Screw that—especially the “life” bit, is what the political right has been saying for a while. Contemporary conservativism has largely jettisoned the notion of a government’s “duty to protect” its citizens, a phrase that goes back to the Reconstruction era. But never has the rejection of the “duty to protect” found such vivid and chilling expression as it has in Trump’s second term. The Trump–Musk administration has morbidly committed itself to an enthusiastically pro-death agenda.

Let’s take fatal illnesses. On Thursday, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that he was cutting 10,000 HHS employees, including those tasked with responding to disease outbreaks. (Another 10,000 employees already took “voluntary” buyouts.) Agencies affected by those cuts include the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—which will lose an estimated 18 percent of its staff—the National Institutes for Health, the Food and Drug Adminstration, as well as Medicare and Medicaid. Meanwhile, bird flu rages among the nation’s poultry and experts fear that it could turn into a deadly human pandemic. Yet the Trump administration has not even staffed the White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy, established by Biden in 2022, and his administration is reportedly rethinking a contract with Moderna to develop a bird flu vaccine, as RFK Jr. publicly floats just letting the virus run wild among the nation’s flocks.

Speaking of deadly diseases, this administration seems to have a special vendetta against cancer research, a priority that has long enjoyed bipartisan popularity. Trump–Musk cuts have abruptly ended lifesaving research supported by the Defense Health Research Consortium on pancreatic, kidney, and lung cancers and left much other cancer research—and cancer care centers—in the lurch. Cancer kills more than 600,000 Americans a year, but the mortality rate for the disease has been steadily decreasing for decades, due in part to improved research and treatment, mostly funded by the government. That’s progress that RFK, Trump, and Musk are working hard to undo.

Another major cause of untimely demise for Americans is car accidents, and these deaths too have been declining. Yet that may change: The agency charged with researching, tracking, and finding solutions to traffic safety problems, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, has been targeted aggressively by Musk, perhaps related to the agency’s investigations into deadly Tesla crashes and its efforts to monitor the safety of “self-driving vehicles.” He’s cut 5 percent of the NHTSA’s staff, including people who research prevention of auto deaths. Experts agree these cuts could kill people.

Perhaps that should be the new tagline for 2020s America: Come for the bird flu and deadly self-driving cars, but don’t miss the looming apocalypse. Can’t imagine why tourism is on the decline.

Nuclear war—or some kind of nuclear disaster—is likewise becoming an increasingly alarming possibility, with Musk’s firings and buyouts also hammering the National Nuclear Safety Administration, the agency that oversees the nation’s nuclear weaponry. The NNSA struggles to maintain staff, and those departing include scientists, engineers, and people trained to transport dangerous materials securely. Last month, many of those fired were rehired after some members of Congress objected to the cuts. But some of the most important experts there are gone for good, having left for better-paying private-sector jobs. Not to mention, the instability of Trump’s foreign policy is inspiring more countries, including South Korea and Germany, to consider getting nuclear weapons of their own, increasing the risk of nuclear holocaust even more.

This seeming indifference to the risk of mass extinction also sheds light on this administration’s catastrophically destructive approach to climate policy: It’s not that they are climate denialists, or foolish yokels who don’t “believe in science.” Instead, perhaps Trump and Musk simply don’t care if any of us live or die. Perhaps that’s why they are working to dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency, exit the Paris treaty, and undo the Biden administration’s best climate policies, including the green energy projects—mostly in Republican districts—funded by the Inflation Reduction Act.

Not satisfied with ensuring that the government won’t address any root causes of climate change—or even mention the words—Trump–Musk doesn’t even want to protect us from the climate disasters that are already coming: This week, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said that the Federal Emergency Management Agency would be eliminated. As with so many of these changes, it’s not clear that the administration has the authority to do that. But given the increase in deadly climate disasters, from superstorms to wildfires, the effort to kill FEMA seems almost certain to also kill people.

It’s ironic that the tech bro class is seeking to live forever, while at every turn divesting the government of its responsibility to save lives. Although Musk has in the past distanced himself from this childish quest, he seems to be coming around; hawking his weird brain-chip implant start-up on Monday, he said immortality through brain implants was “definitely possible.” Just as with all other resources, billionaires are trying to hog longevity—living absurdly long lives, and even talking about abolishing death altogether (for themselves).

But for the rest of us, what a challenging time to try to stay alive! One can imagine delightful and fitting ends to this story—Trump and Musk drive off together, to their doom, in a unregulated self-driven car, a 2025 version of Thelma and Louise. But most likely, things won’t conclude in such a simple and satisfying manner. This regime won’t last forever, but political change will take time. Meanwhile, be careful out there.

[Vesper 29,376]

Trump Quietly Threatens U.S. Automakers Over His New Tariffs

Donald Trump clearly knows his tariffs will hurt consumers.

https://newrepublic.com/post/193298/trump-threatens-us-automakers-tariffs-cars

 

Trump is holding U.S. automakers hostage by scaring them into not raising prices while he puts massive 25 percent tariffs on all of the materials they need to make their product. 

The Wall Street Journal reported that the president told automakers at an event earlier this month that he would look “unfavorably” on any price increases after his tariffs, causing automakers to fear retribution unless they just grin and bear the incoming cost increases. He also told them that they should be happy and thankful for him ridding them of Biden’s electric vehicle mandate, and that the tariffs would actually just be “great.” 

“You’re going to see prices going down, but going to go down specifically because they’re going to buy what we’re doing, incentivizing companies to—and even countries—companies to come into America,” Trump told the CEOs.  

This is a huge contradiction. The president claims he’s trying to lower inflation and reinvigorate the domestic manufacturing industry while simultaneously making everything more expensive. Trump’s new 25 percent automobile tariffs will go into effect on April 2. Almost half of all passenger cars in the U.S. are manufactured outside of our borders in places like Mexico and Japan. Carmakers already have begun to stockpile new, completed cars to try to offset the tariffs until May. 

“It is difficult to see how imposed tariffs over time would not have some impact on prices,” American Automotive Policy Council President Matt Blunt, who represents General Motors, Stellantis, and Ford Motor, told the Journal. 

It’s unclear how the Trump administration will punish car companies that do indeed raise prices—something they’ve been forced into doing by Trump himself.

 

 

Trump’s Latest Tariffs Are Already Wreaking Havoc on the Auto Industry

Automotive stocks are crashing following Donald Trump’s latest round of tariffs.

https://newrepublic.com/post/193263/donald-trump-executive-order-auto-tariffs-stocks

 

U.S. auto stocks opened down on Thursday after Donald Trump announced “permanent” 25 percent tariffs on “all cars that are not made in the United States.”

The Big Three automakers took an immediate hit as the market digested the announcement, with tariffs on vehicles expected to go into effect on April 3 and vehicle parts one month later.

General Motors stock fell more than 7 percent in morning trading on Thursday, and continued to fall to roughly 9 percent down.

Deutsche Bank analysts noted that General Motors is likely to be hit the hardest by Trump’s announcement because it has “the most exposure to Mexico.”

A little over half of General Motors vehicles sold in the U.S. during the first three quarters of 2024 were assembled in the U.S., according to Barclays analyst Dan Levy. Thirty percent were assembled in Canada and Mexico, and 18 percent were brought in from other countries.

While a lot of General Motors cars are assembled in the U.S., they rely heavily on imported parts.

Ford saw a smaller dip, losing only 2 percent in trading. “Tesla and Ford appear to be the most shielded given location of vehicle assembly facilities although Ford does face incremental exposure on imported engines,” wrote the Deutsche Bank analysts. Seventy-eight percent of Ford vehicles are assembled in the U.S., while only 21 percent of U.S.-sold units are assembled in Mexico or Canada.

Stellantis, which assembles roughly 57 percent of its vehicles in the U.S., lost less than 2 percent in morning trading.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk’s Tesla saw a bump of 5 percent in morning trading, after Trump’s last round of tariff announcements and reference to a seemingly imminent economic recession sent the stock cratering earlier this month.

Trump told reporters Wednesday that tariffs, which have already started to tank the valuations of the Big Three automakers, would “continue to spur growth.”

Trump’s tariffs on vehicles and auto parts is the latest move in his escalating trade war with both Mexico and Canada, which is very likely to have dire and long-lasting economic impacts on America’s border states.

Shawn Fain, the president of the United Auto Workers union, applauded Trump’s move, saying that the new tariffs were a step to “end the free trade disaster that has devastated working-class communities for decades.” In a separate statement, the union expressed optimism that Trump’s announcement could help bring back automanufacturing jobs to the states.

 

[kolovrat 20]

On 23/03/2025 at 18:16, Fernando said:

The guy is sounding a lot like an agnostic? 

He says and besides as I sometimes imagine that others deceive themselves in the things which they think they know best, how do I know that I am not deceived every time that I add two and three or count the sides of the square, or judge of things yet simpler, if anything simpler can be imagined?

From page 8. 

Is this guy an agnostic? Or atheist? 

Atheist to me always seem like a religion because it requires a lot of faith. 

Agnostic is a better posture then the former as you can't rule the idea of God but your not sure about it. 

I think Descartes was a deist (I am).  I gather from his writings that he did arrive to conclusion of existence of the Higher Being.  Originally an atheist, I did too - after studying physics, engineering, anatomy, biology.  I find all religions being dogmatic and not able to explain existence of God/Higher Being - more like a collection of fairy tales and instructions/directives.

The key principle that he derived is 'Cognito, ergo sum'  (I think, therefore I am), and it changed the course of Philosophy forever.  This principle permeates through all his writings.

From his 'Discourse on the Method':
Accordingly, seeing that our senses sometimes deceive us, I was willing to suppose that there existed nothing really such as they presented to us; And because some men err in reasoning, and fall into Paralogisms, even on the simplest matters of Geometry, I, convinced that I was as open to error as any other, rejected as false all the reasonings I had hitherto taken for Demonstrations; And finally, when I considered that the very same thoughts (presentations) which we experience when awake may also be experienced when we are asleep, while there is at that time not one of them true, I supposed that all the objects (presentations) that had ever entered into my mind when awake, had in them no more truth than the illusions of my dreams. But immediately upon this I observed that, whilst I thus wished to think that all was false, it was absolutely necessary that I, who thus thought, should be something; And as I observed that this truth, I think, therefore I am,^[c] was so certain and of such evidence that no ground of doubt, however extravagant, could be alleged by the Sceptics capable of shaking it, I concluded that I might, without scruple, accept it as the first principle of the philosophy of which I was in search.^[f][g]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cogito,_ergo_sum

 

The movie 'Matrix' in based on this.  We experience and make decisions in this world empirically based on our 5 senses, and how do we know that they don't lie to us?  Humans in pods had all their sensory signals fed with fake data.

 

[Fernando 6,520]

5 hours ago, kolovrat said:

I think Descartes was a deist (I am).  I gather from his writings that he did arrive to conclusion of existence of the Higher Being.  Originally an atheist, I did too - after studying physics, engineering, anatomy, biology.  I find all religions being dogmatic and not able to explain existence of God/Higher Being - more like a collection of fairy tales and instructions/directives.

The key principle that he derived is 'Cognito, ergo sum'  (I think, therefore I am), and it changed the course of Philosophy forever.  This principle permeates through all his writings.

From his 'Discourse on the Method':
Accordingly, seeing that our senses sometimes deceive us, I was willing to suppose that there existed nothing really such as they presented to us; And because some men err in reasoning, and fall into Paralogisms, even on the simplest matters of Geometry, I, convinced that I was as open to error as any other, rejected as false all the reasonings I had hitherto taken for Demonstrations; And finally, when I considered that the very same thoughts (presentations) which we experience when awake may also be experienced when we are asleep, while there is at that time not one of them true, I supposed that all the objects (presentations) that had ever entered into my mind when awake, had in them no more truth than the illusions of my dreams. But immediately upon this I observed that, whilst I thus wished to think that all was false, it was absolutely necessary that I, who thus thought, should be something; And as I observed that this truth, I think, therefore I am,^[c] was so certain and of such evidence that no ground of doubt, however extravagant, could be alleged by the Sceptics capable of shaking it, I concluded that I might, without scruple, accept it as the first principle of the philosophy of which I was in search.^[f][g]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cogito,_ergo_sum

 

The movie 'Matrix' in based on this.  We experience and make decisions in this world empirically based on our 5 senses, and how do we know that they don't lie to us?  Humans in pods had all their sensory signals fed with fake data.

 

The only way of knowing that is when you die, your finally free from these 5 senses. The only problem that no one has any data of consciousness after death other then a man name Jesus that rose from the dead.

But other then that we can just theorize, speculate, because no one really knows. 

Now if the whole experience of Jesus is real (Which I believe is true), then it does shows that after we die we experience a consciousness that goes beyond the 5 senses we have. As right now we are limited to our human body to know anything else. After we die consciousness goes somewhere else (What we call soul and go to heave or hell in the Christian world).