Trump Cancels Health, Environment, Puppies, Springtime, And Smiling

Next up: everything listed in the song 'My Favorite Things'.

We think it’s a puppy. Could be an Ewok. A fluffy vole? Tiny bear? Who can say! Photo by Alvan Nee on Unsplash

What havoc is being planned next by Presidents Elon Musk and Donald Trump? All of it, Katie! Courts have been ordering the Trump administration and Elon’s Musketeens to stop illegally dismantling government agencies and snooping around in Americans’ data in lord knows how many federal databases, although who knows whether Trump and the teens are actually complying with those orders. After all, Trump is King, and therefore any judge ruling against him is obviously not legitimate.

We sure hope the court injunctions stand, because if Trump ignores them, then we’re truly in “constitutional crisis” territory, as if a president unilaterally declaring laws and agencies null and void hadn’t already created one of those crises. But since we haven’t quite reached the “openly ignoring court orders” stage yet, we’ll instead run down some of the latest moves, and expected moves, that are likely to generate even more lawsuits against the administration. Please wear safety goggles and any other personal protective equipment you have on hand, because this is gonna be messy.

Why Should Government Do ‘Health’ At All?

Trump’s Whites-Only House is working up an executive order that would shitcan thousands of federal workers from Health and Human Services, the Wall Street Journal reports (reprint at MSN.com). Big surprise, a Whites-Only House spokesperson denied any such order is in the works when the Journal asked, but’s that’s just to avoid spoiling the surprise.

The order would demand the firing of a set percentage of staff at all HHS agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and others, because it’s open season on anyone in government who knows what they’re doing. The exact target percentage wasn’t reported. How about 100 percent? Does 100 percent work for Trump? We bet it might.

The story adds that the order hasn’t been finalized yet, and who knows, Trump could decide against it, which doesn’t mean he wouldn’t just send Elon and Schlemiel Team Six in to do the firings instead.

To make the axe murders layoffs easier, the Journal says,

Agency officials have been told to prepare lists of probationary workers who have essential roles and must be retained, and of employees who don’t, according to people familiar with the instructions. Generally, probationary employees have served less than one year, or two years for “excepted service” and can be let go more easily than other workers.

There’s also a similar but disturbingly specific report at “BioCentury” that the cuts would reduce FDA staff by half and that the CDC would be eliminated altogether, but it’s paywalled and darned if we’re plunking down 55 Ameros to see what’s in it. If such drastic cuts really are ordered, it will make the news all over, right? In which case, Jesus H Christ. [WSJ (at MSN) / BioCentury]

Trump (Illegally) Pulls Plug On EV Charging

The US Department of Transportation told states that they must stop using funds from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to build fast EV charging stations, even though Congress allocated the funds already and it’s, like, the law, man. In a letter to state transportation departments, the Federal Highway Administration said that the $5 billion National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program was suspended immediately, as were all funding approvals under the program.

The only exception will be for stations that have already begun construction. DOT will honor state reimbursement requests for those, but not for any that are at any stage of planning or approval short of breaking ground.

The charging station program was meant to build fast (Level 3) DC charging stations along interstate highways and highways in rural areas, with an emphasis on getting high-speed chargers in areas not already served by commercial networks. Another $2.5 billion was allocated for chargers in cities and towns, to make owning an EV more viable for more people.

Now, if you thought Freakenfuhrer Musk might object to this, keep in mind that if it survives court challenges, it takes a competitor to Tesla’s Supercharger network off the table. So it’s not Trump stabbing his boss in the back, it’s more like collusion.

NEVI has been criticized for its seemingly slow rollout, which is largely the result of its funding process. States must apply for grant approval from the federal DOT before receiving tranches of funds, soliciting bids from private companies, and beginning construction on charging stations. The program is designed to make sure stations are built to high standards in locations where they’ll actually be used, but the reliance on states to do much of the heavy lifting, with mostly federal funding, meant that so far, only 55 NEVI-funded charging stations are in service. Cue the snarky “$5 billion for 55 stations?” from the same people who probably complained Eisenhower didn’t finish the Interstate Highway System two years after signing the legislation. (Can you imagine if we’d had Twitter then? Yikes.)

Despite that, the program was pretty much on schedule, since it was designed to run 10 years, with the bulk of stations supposed to come online between this year and 2027. Obviously, Trump wants to stop that, but since NEVI is yet another program authorized by Congress, and some $3.3 billion of the funds have already gone to states, it will be up to courts to decide whether Trump can block that spending or claw it back. He shouldn’t be able to; legally eliminating NEVI should require Congress to repeal that section of the Infrastructure Law. Let the lawsuits from contractors and blue state AGs bloom! [Inside EVs / WaPo]

Paw Patrol In Ur FEMA Data Killin’ Ur Disaster Relief

Donald Trump said a couple weeks back that he wanted to wish the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) into a cornfield, and now the Washington Post reports that Elon Musk’s Dogboys are indeed “reviewing the grant programs it uses to help communities prepare for and respond to disasters,” according to insiders who know what’s being fucked over this time.

As at other agencies, the creepy manchilden of the Paw Patrol — who don’t have security clearances — are digging around in secure FEMA databases that hold

the private and sensitive information of tens of thousands of disaster victims. For example, FEMA officials said that on Feb. 5, Edward Coristine, a 19-year-old former college student who goes by the moniker “Big Balls” online and now works for Musk, was given a FEMA badge. The officials, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of fears of professional retaliation.

Naturally, the big fear is that Trump and the Muskdoggies will do to FEMA what they’ve tried to do to USAID, but with the added fun of putting Americans’ private data at risk, too.

Oh, also Musk plans to rehire the racist kid who resigned over his anonymous online racist posts, because he’s just a nice young racist man who has his whole racist life ahead of him. [WaPo / NBC News]

Labor Rights? We Don’t Need No Stinking Labor Rights!

After Donald Trump illegally fired Gwynne A. Wilcox, a Biden appointee, from the National Labor Relations Board, the remaining members of the Board filed a letter in a court case this week stating they would no longer defend against the insane claims by lawyers for SpaceX that the NLRB’s very existence is unconstitutional. It’s not quite the NLRB erasing itself, but it certainly indicates that the board will just roll over and not try to enforce labor laws, especially if that upsets the prancing dipshit. [Labor Relations Update]

How About Medicaid And SNAP? Those Are Expendable Too, Right?

The GOP Senate’s resolution for the Big Fucking Reconciliation Bill To Fuck America bill, which will extend Trump’s 2017 Big Fat Tax Cuts For Rich Fuckwads and pay for it by slashing everything but defense spending, includes a call for the Agriculture Committee and Finance Committee to each find a trillion dollars to cut from the programs they have authority over. As Bobby Kogan of the Center for American Progress explains, that translates to deep cuts to Medicaid and SNAP (aka food stamps), at the very least. [Senate Resolution / Bluesky]

Be Of Good Cheer: States Are Suing Again, More

We’ll just close with a bit of good news to remind you that none of this shit is inevitable, no matte how much shit they throw at us. In yet another lawsuit, 19 Democratic state attorneys general sued Friday to demand that Musk and his Fascist Dogsled Mushers be prevented from accessing Americans’ private data, because that’s what privacy laws are supposed to prevent, You Fucking Fucks.

And in the wee hours of Saturday morning, a federal judge said fuck no, they can’t fucking do that. The injunction from US District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer blocked the Teen Termites from accessing Treasury Department data, including millions of Americans’ Social Security numbers and bank account information. It also ordered that any copies of data made by the fucking fuckboys must be destroyed.

The judge set a fucking hearing to consider extending the fucking injunction on Februfuckingary 14, happy fucking Valentine’s Day you unfuckable un-American fuckweasels. [AP / AP]

There’s probably some shit we missed too. That’s the plan, innit?

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Musk's Doggie Hackerboys Update!

How Much More F*cked Can Trump's War On USAID Get? Let Us Lose Count Of The Ways!

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