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Posts posted by TexasHooch
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On 3/11/2025 at 6:30 PM, TexasHooch said:
Yeah. It was a bloodbath.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/12/politics/perkins-coie-trump-executive-order-challenge/index.html
QuoteA federal judge on Wednesday halted parts of President Donald Trump’s executive order that targeted a Democratic-linked law firm.
US District Judge Beryl Howell sided with the firm Perkins Coie, which represented Hillary Clinton in 2016 and has been involved in election litigation that Trump opposed.
Howell granted the firm’s request for a temporary restraining order for some sections of Trump’s order. The parts being blocked include its limitations on government contracts with clients of the firm and the potential restrictions it puts on the firm’s employees, such as bans on hiring those employees for government positions or barring their access to federal buildings.
The executive order, Howell said as she read her opinion in court for more than 30 minutes, is “a punishment for a singled-out entity being disloyal.”
When “the Queen of Hearts yells ‘off with their heads’ for her subjects,” Howell added, that “cannot be the reality we are living under.”
The judge, an appointee of President Barack Obama, said the case also touches on larger tests of Trump’s executive authority. The executive order, she said, is an unconstitutional use of “taxpayer dollars and government resources … to pursue a personal vendetta.”
“The president is certainly entitled to his own beliefs, entitled to his own causes, and entitled to his own dislikes,” Howell said. But the president cannot “bring the federal government down on his political opponents … as he has done here.”
‘Chilling effect’ to legal system
The judge also said she was blocking much of Trump’s order because of the economic harm it would cause to the law firm — and the intimidating message it sent across legal industry.
Howell said the order was an “extreme, unprecedented effort” and had an effect of “blizzard proportions across the legal profession.”
Delivering her decision from the bench, Howell said the justice system depends on zealous advocates on all sides being able to argue for their clients.
“The chilling effect of this executive order, 14230, threatens to significantly undermine the integrity of our entire legal system,” she said.
DOJ argues Trump should be trusted without question
The ruling came at the end of a hearing where the top aide to the attorney general argued that the president should be trusted without question if he wants to blacklist or sanction businesses or people as he sees fit across the country.
The argument from Chad Mizelle, the chief of staff to Attorney General Pam Bondi, is one of staggering presidential power.
Howell was flabbergasted by Mizelle’s argument, saying it sent “chills down my spine” to hear the president could bar all government business with a particular company or person. Howell compared that type of decision by the president to Treasury Department economic sanctions that are decided by the Office of Foreign Assets Control related to national security.
“Your view is, ‘Don’t be chilled, judge. You can just trust the president to draw the right line, and yes, he has that power?’” Howell asked. “And that’s the government’s position here?”
“100 percent,” Mizelle said. “The president has every right to take that action.”
Mizelle also argued the courts shouldn’t be able to limit the president’s authority, especially as he decides upon lawyers’ security clearances or other access questions related to national security.
Perkins Coie’s lawyer Dane Butswinkas, however, said that the national security argument is a red herring, and the Trump administration’s approach refers to “a different Constitution from the one I’m familiar with.”
The firm says the order will cause top clients to drop its lawyers, and ultimately “will spell the end of the law firm,” Butswinkas said. “The president is punishing this law firm” for defending free speech.
He said that Justice Department prosecutors have canceled meetings with Perkins Coie lawyers, hurting their ability to represent clients in ongoing legal matters.
Howell also said she was blocking Trump’s order because it appears to violate several Constitutional protections, including the right for defendants to choose their lawyers, and the First Amendment right to petition the government. Perkins Coie also had no warning of the executive order or chance to oppose it before the White House issued it last Thursday, violating their due process, the judge added.
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2 hours ago, 956 Worldwide said:If this was really his intent, there are two things that he's doing that he wouldn't be doing.
1) He wouldn't be demanding things in return (ie, stop fentanyl, lol).
2) He wouldn't be backtracking and removing tariffs right away- or in some cases never implementing them in the first place.
If I was a CEO of a corporation with production in Canada, and was convinced that Trump was intent on doing what the quote above attributes as his intent, I could act on that. I wouldn't like it, but the mandate would be clear. As it is though, why in the hell would I start the years long process of building a new billion dollar plant in Cleveland when the impetus for doing so could very well be null and void before the board meeting is over?
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Tesla's Market Cap is still 771B. While I agree that this current "rally" is temporary, this cat is a looooooooong way from dead.
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This is nice. Someone created a site and dashboard to deep dive into DOGE's claimed vs. real savings.
https://www.muskwatch.com/p/introducing-the-musk-watch-doge-tracker
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Trump official tasked with defending DOGE cuts posted fashion influencer videos from her office
https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/11/politics/opm-spokesperson-fashion-influencer-videos-invs/index.html
QuoteAs the Office of Personnel Management oversaw the layoffs of thousands of federal workers and pressed others to justify their positions, the agency’s chief spokesperson repeatedly used her office for a side hustle: aspiring Instagram fashion influencer.
In at least a dozen videos filmed in her OPM office, political appointee McLaurine Pinover modeled her outfit choices for the day, while directing followers from her Instagram account to a website that could earn her commissions on clothing sales.
On the same day OPM sent a government-wide memo pressing federal officials to identify barriers they faced in their work to “swiftly terminate poor performing employees,” Pinover posted a video blowing a kiss to the camera with the caption “work look” and the hashtag #dcinfluencer. Her Instagram account linked to a site where viewers could buy the $475 purple skirt she wore in the video.
One watchdog group said her videos could run afoul of rules restricting the use of government property for personal benefit because, while in the workplace, she was using a website that pays content creators commissions from the clothing brands they promote.
Former OPM staffers during the Biden administration also told CNN that they were offended by Pinover posting as a fashion influencer on government property while defending mass layoffs of federal workers – at a time when top Trump administration officials have accused career employees of being lazy and wasteful.
“Your number one job as a leader is to protect and support your people,” said Jack Miller, who preceded Pinover as the politically appointed OPM communications director under President Joe Biden. “So instead of fighting tooth and nail to keep your team, we’re posting fashion videos. It’s absurd.”
Pinover, who started her job at the federal government’s human resources agency in January, has issued numerous statements backing the Trump administration’s moves to lay off probationary employees and offer buyouts to tens of thousands of others. When OPM sent federal employees an email last month asking them to list five bullet points of things they had done in the past week, Pinover described it as “a commitment to an efficient and accountable federal workforce.”
Pinover did not respond to a list of questions. But she deleted her Instagram account, @getdressedwithmc, minutes after CNN asked about it.
On Instagram, where she had about 800 followers, Pinover’s posts were adorned with hashtags like #dcstyle and #dcinfluencer, and soundtracked with hits like Sabrina Carpenter’s “Busy Woman.” She had posted as recently as Tuesday, when she uploaded a video showing herself typing on her office computer. Her account did not identify her as a federal employee.
Pinover posted at least a dozen fashion influencer videos from her office in the agency's Washington, DC, headquarters.
The videos were filmed inside the office of the OPM communications director on the fifth floor of the agency’s Washington, DC, headquarters, according to three former OPM staffers. The office is across the hall from a secure annex that has become a hub for workers at the Department of Government Efficiency, the cost-cutting effort pushed by Trump ally Elon Musk.
“I saw it, and I was like, ‘Are you kidding me, that’s my office,’” a former OPM communications staffer, who asked not to be named out of concern for retaliation, told CNN. “She’s the spokesperson for the agency that is advocating for the firing based on performance and efficiency of the rest of the government workforce, and she’s using government property as a backdrop for her videos.”
Pinover’s Instagram page linked to her account on the fashion website ShopMy, which featured links for viewers to buy the same pieces of clothing Pinover wore in her videos. At least some of the links on Pinover’s ShopMy page were “affiliate links” for clothing brands like Quince and Reformation, as well as retailers like Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s – a technique used by social media influencers to receive payments from companies whose products they promote.
Brands pay commissions to ShopMy users who send them customers through affiliate links, according to the website, with the influencers sometimes receiving about 15% of the sales price. It’s not clear what commission rate Pinover could have earned or whether she received any money through the links. Pinover also deleted all the content on her ShopMy page on Tuesday.
According to federal regulations, government employees must not use public property “for other than authorized purposes,” with exceptions for “de minimis personal use,” such as sending a personal email from a government account.
Donald K. Sherman, the chief counsel for the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said Pinover’s posts appeared to violate rules prohibiting the use of government resources for private gain, and would not be considered “de minimis.”
The rules don’t “give cover to a federal employee using government resources to subsidize their private business,” Sherman said. “It is highly problematic that while dedicated civil servants who want to work for the government are being fired for all manner of dubious reasons, or are being forced out by this administration, that someone at the agency leading that attack on the civil service is using their government job for private gain.”
Still, Kathleen Clark, a government ethics expert at Washington University in St. Louis, said Pinover’s potential rule violations were small potatoes compared to other ethical questions surrounding the role of DOGE and Musk in the Trump administration.
Because Pinover didn’t reference her OPM position in her online posts, “she does not appear to be attempting to trade on the prestige of government office,” Clark noted.
Some federal agencies also have regulations that say certain employees need to get approval before pursuing a “business relationship or activity involving the provision of personal services by the employee for direct, indirect, or deferred compensation,” although it’s unclear if a similar rule covers OPM workers.
Several of the Instagram videos from Pinover’s office were posted during business hours, according to a review of code embedded in the social media website, and most appear to have been filmed during the daytime.
The former OPM staffers say they were particularly offended by one video Pinover posted on February 13. That was the day that OPM reportedly held a call with other federal agencies directing them to lay off thousands of probationary employees – and when about 20 people on Pinover’s team were told their jobs would be cut, according to Miller, her predecessor.
The agency’s communications team “worked their butts off to support other agencies and the workforce,” Miller said. “To post that video the very day your entire team is getting laid off is ridiculous.”
“While her team is getting axed, she’s twirling around in her office,” added the other former staffer.
Related article‘Second American Revolution’: The team behind DOGE’s government overhaul
Pinover also posted a video on February 28, the day that OPM sent out a second government-wide email asking federal employees to summarize their work. Administration officials like Musk have described those emails as part of a broader effort to root out employees who were not using their time efficiently.
“Pretending to work while taking money from taxpayers is no longer acceptable,” Musk posted on his social media network, X, in January.
Before Pinover joined OPM at the beginning of Trump’s second term, she worked as a senior director at a public affairs firm, and was a deputy communications director for the House Foreign Affairs Committee, according to her LinkedIn page. She also worked as an assistant in the Executive Office of the President during Trump’s first term.
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What's the opposite of Leopard ate my face? Chameleon scratched my taint?
...undignified huh. This you?
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8 minutes ago, 4th&Five said:
Is that how much most of them charge? I think we paid $50 each way for ours on Alaskan but that was a couple years back.
Checked today. Delta had the cheapest flight, but they charge $150 each way. For an 8 year-old who needs a babysitter, sure. But this kid has flown dozens of times. Hell, I trust him to fly alone more than I trust my dad to, and he's flown hundreds.
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2 minutes ago, 956 Worldwide said:
I did not have “borders are artificial constructs” on my MAGA bingo. Some real monkeys paw shit there.
Just the Canadian one. He's so cool with the Mexican one, he built a wall on it.
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Also not gold, so no way it's actually his. When was the last time that guy drove a car anyway? It may be electric Don, but no, it's not like a golf cart.
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So dumb.
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Violence within the Capital Building is cool, but criminal mischief against a Company whose CEO has "no official role in government" is terrorism?
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The "I voted for Trump, but I didn't vote for..." posts are my favorite.
Yes. You did.
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2 hours ago, GenXer said:Texas farm bureau wants dotard to invoke 1944 treaty to get water from mexico for texas.
Meanwhile, dotard complains about unfairness of trade agreement he personally negotiated during his first term.
Texas farm bureau better pass around the collection plate cause otherwise you’re not getting any of dotard’s attention.
Fake news. You can't fool Trump. He knows that water only flows down, so it can't come from Mexico to Texas.
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At least I can still put my 14 year-old boy on a SWA flight alone without paying a $300 fee on top of the ticket. Pisses me off.
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You play dumb well then, given that several of us took it in earnest.
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6 minutes ago, DixonHur said:
It was a rhetorical question, but I think you knew that
No it wasn't, but I don't think it was dumb either. Here's a nice article that I think lays it all out really well.
https://cars.usnews.com/cars-trucks/advice/which-automakers-will-be-affected-by-tariffs
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1 minute ago, Valmy77 said:
Tariffs work by taxing things crossing borders. Cars are assembled here in the US in Mexico, the US, and Canada with components and materials crossing borders multiple times. Hence the panic by the Auto industry over the tariffs.
The company whose brand is on the car is not the issue.
As evidenced by Japaneese makers also puckering right now. Lotsa Toyotas/Lexus' coming from Canadia too.
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Hard-hitting journelinst of the day award goes to...
Peter Doocy?
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Don't know if this was purposeful, but it's perfect.
No need to click on a link.
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On 3/4/2025 at 2:23 PM, TexasHooch said:
I'm 99% liquid now. I can recover from being out of the game for a period. I cannot recover from a crash- too old.
Right now my only struggle is resisting the temptation to YOLO my whole stack day trading.
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9 minutes ago, Mdhorn said:
So many invested in a worthless game of chicken. They projected a lot onto someone that has an open disdain for brown people. Or take the normal route and pay him. His policies are first and foremost transactional, except for the really dumb ones.
There's a scene in Bridge of Spies where James Donovan is packing up for the secret hostage negotiation and his wife, knowing something is up but frustrated that he won't tell her, says "Just give me something to hold on to, I don't even care if it's the truth."
I suspect that's basically what these groups were thinking.
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The Leopards Eating Faces and Unlubed Dildo of Consequences Thread
in Cloak Room
Posted
Were they only buying one?