Thoughts and prayers for the mass murder of school children. Imprisonment of "domestic terrorists" in a foreign gulag for vandalizing a car.

Are we great yet?

More: Dudek's threat to block SSA employees from using the agency's IT systems " a move that could halt Social Security payments " came in response to a judge's temporary restraining order in a case brought by the AFL-CIO labor union. The order bars Social Security Administration officials from allowing DOGE, including Musk, and the SSA's DOGE team to access personally identifiable information. It also directs Musk and DOGE to delete from their possession all non-anonymized personal data, and bars them from having access to SSA computers or code.

Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander wrote that the SSA had likely violated administrative and privacy laws when it gave DOGE "unbridled access to the personal and private data of millions of Americans, including but not limited to Social Security numbers, medical records, mental health records, hospitalization records, drivers' license numbers, bank and credit card information, tax information, income history, work history, birth and marriage certificates, and home and work addresses."

She added that the "defendants, with so-called experts on the DOGE Team, never identified or articulated even a single reason for which the DOGE Team needs unlimited access to SSA's entire record systems, thereby exposing personal, confidential, sensitive, and private information that millions of Americans entrusted to their government."

Hollander's order does allow the SSA to grant DOGE members "access to redacted or anonymized data and records" if they receive standard training for employees who generally work with Social Security data systems, to ensure they understand applicable federal laws, regulations, and policies that protect the privacy of personally identifiable information.

In other words, Musk and DOGE must comply with existing privacy laws. According to Dudek, Trump's acting commissioner for the Social Security Administration, this requirement is a reason to threaten to halt the safety net program that 71 million Americans rely on for support.

Dudek's comments come as DOGE moves to close dozens of SSA offices, potentially limit phone services, and demand that beneficiaries travel to visit offices in-person to verify their identities " changes that stand to overwhelm the system and prevent seniors and the disabled from receiving their checks.

I defy anyone to list even on good reason for this.

As a former custodian of classified documents this is unfathomable.

UK did the same thing

Remember when the government at least pretended to not be in the business of picking winners and losers?

It would be kind of funny if it weren't so tragic.

Trump getting played is, well, expected. The cost of his incompetence paid by the Ukrainian people is unacceptable.

That's a good start.

Disgusting.

FDA will find a way to ban the treatment.

More: Why it matters: The White House's decision to disregard a federal judge's order has set up a legal battle that could make its way to the Supreme Court and define the limits of Trump's deportation powers.

Driving the news: Homan claimed in a Fox News interview Monday that the two deportation flights to El Salvador did not need to be turned around because they were already above international waters when the order came through.

"We are going to make this country safe again ... I'm proud to be a part of this administration. We are not stopping. I don't care what the judges think. I don't care what the Left thinks. We're coming," he added.
Asked what was coming next in the administration's deportation efforts, Homan said: "Another flight. Another flight every day."

Catch up quick: By going through with the flights, the White House effectively ignored U.S. District Judge James Boasberg's Saturday order barring the deportation of about 250 Venezuelans under the Alien Enemies Act of 1789.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement the judge's order had "no lawful basis" and "was issued after terrorist TdA aliens had already been removed from U.S. territory."
It's not clear how many of the immigrants were deported under the 18th century law or other immigration statutes. It's likewise unclear what process was used to determine whether all the people on the flights were members of the Tren de Aragua gang, as the administration claimed.

Zoom out: Homan confirmed to Fox News that the administration's decision came after Trump signed an executive order Saturday invoking the Alien Enemies Act for the first time since World War II.

The act allows the government to detain and remove immigrants with little to no due process. It was most famously used during World War II to help justify Japanese internment.
Homan called Trump's use of the law a "game-changer."

More: Top Trump administration officials"including the president, vice president, attorney general, and secretary of state"openly celebrated the deportation of hundreds of Venezuelan immigrants over the weekend in defiance of a federal judge's order to halt the removals, which were carried out under a 1798 law that plainly states it is only operative in the context of a declared war.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance wrote late Sunday that "there were violent criminals and rapists in our country" and "President [Donald] Trump deported them." There was no due process for the more than 200 Venezuelans whom the Trump administration claims are gang members.

Vance's social media post, which came in response to reporting about the White House's acknowledgment that it ignored the court order blocking the deportations, was met with disgust and alarm.

"You are beyond vile," political scientist Norman Ornstein wrote. "You have no idea if the ones that were picked up and sent illegally to an El Salvador prison are all violent criminals. You abused the plain language of the law, gave them no due process, and defied a legitimate court order. This is American Gestapo."

He was Major General Rogers when he retired.

More: On Saturday, US army Maj Gen Charles Calvin Rogers's Medal of Honor webpage led to a "404" error message. The URL was also changed, with the word "medal" changed to "deimedal".

Rogers, who was awarded the Medal of Honor by then president Richard Nixon in 1970, served in the Vietnam war, where he was wounded three times while leading the defense of a base.

According to the West Virginia military hall of fame, Rogers was the highest-ranking African American to receive the medal. After his death in 1990, Rogers's remains were buried at the Arlington national cemetery in Washington DC, and in 1999 a bridge in Fayette county, where Rogers was born, was renamed the Charles C Rogers Bridge.

As of Sunday afternoon, a "404 " Page Not Found" message appeared on the defense department's webpage for Rogers, along with the message: "The page you are looking for might have been moved, renamed, or may be temporarily unavailable."

A screenshot posted by the writer Brandon Friedman on Bluesky on Saturday evening showed the Google preview of an entry of Rogers's profile on the defense department's website.

Dated 1 November 2021, the entry's Google preview reads: "Medal of Honor Monday: Army Maj Gen. Charles Calvin Rogers." Below it are the words: "Army Maj Gen Charles Calvin Rogers served through all of it. As a Black man, he worked for gender and race equality while in the service."

"Google his name and the entry below comes up. When you click, you'll see the page has been deleted and the URL changed to include DEI medal,'" Friedman wrote.

The Guardian has asked the defense department for comment.

Biden was unarguably better for the economy.

UnAmerican is too mild of a term for what is happening in our country.

Habitat for Humanity? JFC.

More: Gerstein and Cheney describe Alsup's order as "one of the most far-reaching rejections of the Trump administration's effort to slash the bureaucracy and is almost certain to be appealed."

"It is sad, a sad day, when our government would fire some good employee and say it was based on performance when they know good and well that's a lie," mused Alsup from the bench before issuing the order.

He also laid into the Department of Justice, telling an attorney representing it that "You will not bring the people in here to be cross-examined. You're afraid to do so because you know cross examination would reveal the truth."

"I tend to doubt that you're telling me the truth. ... I'm tired of seeing you stonewall on trying to get at the truth," he added.

More: Democrats familiar with internal deliberations say that maneuver is designed to save face. They say the Democratic leader is giving members of his caucus space to vote how they see fit on the House-passed bill " recognizing it's probably the only way to avoid a shutdown.

So far, Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) has been the most outspoken Democratic senator about the need to avoid a shutdown.

"Now it's a CR that we all agree we don't like " but for me we can't ever allow the government to shut down," he told CNN Wednesday, echoing comments he made earlier in the week.

"If you shut it down, you will impact and hurt millions and millions and millions Americans, and you run the risk of slipping us into a recession," he warned.

Other moderates including Sens. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) are also warning of the devastating consequences of a shutdown.

"The president has shown a willingness to cut far and wide, really on impulse in many cases ... if you shut down, he decides what is essential. [Trump] is the one who decides which arms of government continue, which arms get actually shut down. In a strange way [a government shutdown] gives him even more power," Hickenlooper warned.

Schumer is full of it. Spineless Dems will give in like they always do.

Yeah, you normally see prosecutions when fraud is uncovered. Where are they?

Impossible! I was told that everyone was fleeing California because it was an apocalyptic hell hole. /s

Trump's bitcoin reserve will be seeded with bitcoin (BTC-USD) already owned by the federal government that was taken as part of criminal or civil asset forfeiture proceedings, Trump's crypto czar David Sacks said in a Thursday post on the social media platform X.

All smoke and mirrors as usual. Just laundering stolen BTC.

More: Business leaders can secure a one-on-one meeting with the president at Mar-a-Lago for $5 million, according to sources with direct knowledge of the meetings. At a so-called candlelight dinner held as recently as this past Saturday, prospective Mar-a-Lago guests were asked to spend $1 million to reserve a seat, according to an invitation obtained by WIRED.

"You are invited to a candlelight dinner featuring special guest President Donald J. Trump," the invitation reads, under a "MAGA INC." header. MAGA Inc., or Make America Great Again Inc., is a super PAC that supported Trump's 2024 presidential campaign. "Additional details provided upon RSVP. RSVPs will be accommodated on a first come, first serve basis. Space is very limited. $1,000,000 per person."

Invitees were asked to RSVP to Meredith O'Rourke, who served as national finance director and senior adviser at Donald J. Trump for President 2024, a campaign committee, and who is the owner of The O'Rourke Group, which O'Rourke describes on her LinkedIn page as a "Republican political fundraiser." Invitees were also directed to email Abby Mathis, the finance coordinator at MAGA Inc. Mathis was previously a staff assistant for Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama"a former Auburn University football coach"and also served as an intern at the White House office of the staff secretary, according to LegiStorm, a research organization that posts information on politicians and their staffers.

"I can't recall a sitting president in the first weeks of his administration asking for millions of dollars in fundraising," says Don Moynihan, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan. "The concern is less about fundraising and more about access and influence ... People hoping to get favorable treatment view it in their interest to donate money to Trump."

"Part of what is worrying," Moynihan adds, "is the lack of ethical guardrails in the current Trump administration, where there doesn't seem to be a clear line between Trump's businesses and the presidency."

Are we great yet, Republicans? Or do we need to bring back leaded gas to go a long with our sh!+ filled water?