#Federal Protection

[thepastisalreadywritten]

[firstoccupier]

Dr. Anthony Fauci's Security Detail Removed Amidst Growing Controversy

Donald J Trump is a Vindictive Prick In a decision that has sparked widespread debate, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who served as the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and as chief medical advisor to former President Biden, had his federal security protection stripped away. This controversial move mirrors a broader trend observed in recent times, where several former…

[official-linguistics-post]

americans, if you haven't voted yet, for the love of all that is good PLEASE vote harris/walz tomorrow.

[saywhat-politics]

May 31, 2025, 2:11 PM MST

By Alexandra Marquez and Lindsay Good

A federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from revoking the temporary protected status of roughly 5,000 Venezuelans who are in the U.S., despite Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s February decision to terminate a Biden-era extension of the program.

U.S. District Judge Edward E. Chen in San Francisco ruled Friday that thousands of Venezuelans who received paperwork extending their protected status during a brief period earlier this year could keep it. That period began when then-Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas extended protected status for Venezuelans in January and ended when Noem terminated it in February.

Chen wrote that if their paperwork has their protected status ending in October 2026, those Venezuelans should not be eligible for deportation while the case is ongoing.

[adreamoverlife]

No sleep. Thoughts are consumed by how when Pomme was first given to the french she was the youngest, the littlest egg, and while she was babied as the youngest she was also the one in the most danger as she was the last egg with all her lives. Not only did she have to grow up so fast, she actually used her lives as protection for her siblings since as long as she had all of them the code would target her and her alone. And she got better, and stronger, and tougher, and the entire island knew her strength. But she was still q!frenchs daughter, youngest in their heart. And while Pomme slowly noticed that most stopped looking over her shoulder, none of the french ever let her face anything alone. She would always be their baby <3

[patron-saint-of-lesbeans]

Please pray for all those going to the March for Life this week, that they put their trust in God and not in princes.

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this press release from the Center for Biological Diversity:

The Trump administration’s proposed budget released today would cut all funding for the Marine Mammal Commission, a federal agency dedicated to the protection of marine mammals.

“I’m truly shocked to see Trump officials trying to kill this crucial protection for whales, dolphins and other marine mammals that just about every single American adores,” said Miyoko Sakashita, oceans director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The commission Trump wants to destroy costs taxpayers just a penny per person, which is far less than a lot of folks spend on stuffed animals. Healthy oceans depend on healthy marine mammals, and I believe most people understand that and care about the survival of these beautiful creatures.”

The Marine Mammal Commission was established by Congress in 1972 to provide oversight of federal government science, policy, and management actions affecting marine mammals and their ecosystems.

If passed, today’s budget proposes to eliminate the commission and its staff starting Oct. 1, 2025. No other federal agency performs the functions of the commission.

The Marine Mammal Protection Act requires the U.S. government to ensure the health and survival of all marine mammals within U.S. jurisdiction. Without the commission, it is unclear how federal officials would be able to comply with the law.

The Trump administration has already reportedly crippled the ability of NOAA Fisheries to carry out its mandate of protecting marine species. In February DOGE fired at least 600 NOAA employees and previously gave buyouts to around 170 workers.

Particularly for coastal states, marine mammals provide immense value to marine ecosystems and help regulate the climate. They also serve as beloved icons for residents and visitors alike, creating a draw for recreational industries.

In 2024 the commission worked to globally reduce entanglement in fishing gear through state and federal actions and by providing grants. The commission also assessed the impacts to marine mammals of proposed activities associated with offshore energy development, suggested ways to minimize harms, and called for partnerships to survey marine mammals in areas proposed for development.

[srldesigns6277]

In a Memo by the Office of Personal Management, Trump has taken steps to End Federal Funding of Gender Ideology.

By 5 P.M. EST on Friday, January 31st, 2025

ALL OF THE FOLLOWING THINGS WILL TAKE PLACE:

From disallowing Outlook on Federal Servers to stopping asking for pronouns to Ensuring that Federal Bathrooms are designated by BIOLOGICAL SEX ONLY. Any Training and Initiatives that promote 'Gender Ideology' must be Cancelled, Disbanded, or Rescinded.

THIS OFFICIALLY ENDS THE RIGHTS OF TRANS INDIVIDUALS WORKING FOR THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT!!!

[onlytiktoks]

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5146618-epa-fires-employees-500-probationary/

[royalarchivist]

Jaiden: Cucurucho, you have a lot of power, right?

Cucurucho: ...I don't know. Maybe.

Roier: Ah... Yes, you know, don't act like a dumbass, you have it. You have it, man. Eh?

Jaiden: Is there a way for us to protect all the Eggs? Do you know? I don't want anything to happen to the Eggs that happened to Bobby.

Cucurucho: Ha ha ha

Roier: WHAT? [Smacks Cucurucho]

Jaiden: [Bops him] Headpats.

Cucurucho: Maybe.

Jaiden: [Continues to bop him] Headpats. C'mon, I can get it out of you! Headpats! Chin scratches! Belly rubs!

Roier: [Joins Jaiden in bopping Cucurucho, chuckling and laughs]

Jaiden: Yeah? He's comin' around!

[Jaiden and Roier both laugh]

[justinspoliticalcorner]

John Knefel at MMFA:

The new head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — a former top architect in the controversial transition plan known as Project 2025 — reportedly told its employees on February 10 to “not perform any work tasks this week,” at least temporarily shuttering an agency that has been the target of right-wing media attacks for years. Russ Vought, who also serves as the director of the Office of Management and Budget, wrote over the weekend that the CFPB “will not be taking its next draw of unappropriated funding because it is not 'reasonably necessary' to carry out its duties.” The CFPB has saved working Americans tens of billions of dollars since it was founded in 2011, including more than $6 billion in annual overdraft fees alone from 2019-2023. Calling it “one of Wall Street’s most feared regulators,” The New York Times reported on February 9 that the bureau’s success has put it “squarely in the Trump administration’s cross hairs.”

Now, Vought appears to be fulfilling a Project 2025 promise — and a longtime right-wing media goal — by taking an axe to the CFPB.

[...] Vought laid bare Project 2025’s broad ambitions in a secretly recorded video last year, saying that he and his collaborators had prepared “about 350 different documents that are regulations and things of that nature that are — we’re planning for the next administration.” The Trump administration has already begun following through on Project 2025’s goals, and dismantling the CFPB is no different. Mandate for Leadership refers to the bureau as a “highly politicized, damaging, and utterly unaccountable federal agency” that is “unconstitutional,” writing that the “next conservative President should order the immediate dissolution of the agency—pull down its prior rules, regulations and guidance, return its staff to their prior agencies and its building to the General Services Administration.” In his dual role at the top of OMB and the CFPB, Vought is well-positioned to enact this sweeping agenda, and he is already taking steps that would amount to a massive power grab for Trump’s White House.  Vought and his colleagues at the Center for Renewing America are leading supporters of a radical theory that the executive branch can unilaterally refuse to spend money allocated by Congress. Toward that end, Vought issued an OMB memo that temporarily froze all federal funding. (The memo was later retracted after widespread backlash.)

Russ Vought, the man that served as the key architect for Project 2025, begins efforts of the GOP’s long-held dream to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

[saywhat-politics]

A federal judge on Friday ordered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s leadership, appointed by President Donald Trump, to halt its campaign to hobble the agency.

Berman ordered Vought to reinstate all probationary and term employees fired after Vought took over at the CFPB, said that he shouldn’t “delete, destroy, remove, or impair agency data,” and struck down Vought’s February stop-work order.

“To ensure that employees can perform their statutorily mandated functions, the defendants must provide them with either fully-equipped office space, or permission to work remotely” Berman wrote.

[claraameliapond]

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Tanya Plibersek (@tanyaplibersek)

"I've approved more than 80 renewable energy projects, enough to power every single home in Australia.

We've added 15 gigawatts of renewable energy to the grid, that's 3 times more than Snowy hydro, it's more than the nuclear plants will ever deliver, if they are ever built, - we've done that already, in just 3 years.

We've already done that.

We're on track to get to 43% emissions reduction,

We're on track to get to 82% renewable energy .

We are engaged in the biggest transformation of the Australian Economy in anybody's living memory

And instead you get this negativity from the sidelines. "

- Tanya Plibersek, Minister for the Environment and Water, Australian Labor Government

VOTE LABOR FOR THE ENVIRONMENT, CLEAN ENERGY, PROTECTED LAND AND OCEANS, HEALTHCARE, STRENGHENED MEDICARE AND PHARMACEUTICAL BENEFITS SCHEME, LOWER COST OF LIVING, REGULATION OF PRICE GOUGING AND SUPERMARKETS , 100% FULLY FUNDED SCHOOLS, FREE TAFE, URGENT CARE CLINICS, EDUCATION, THE ECONOMY. - and , you know, everything else

[alyfoxxxen]

Supreme Court lets Trump end deportation protections for Venezuelans

[mariacallous]

Today, the US Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against farming equipment manufacturer Deere & Company—makers of the iconic green John Deere tractors, harvesters, and mowers—citing its longtime reluctance to keep its customers from fixing their own machines.

“Farmers rely on their agricultural equipment to earn a living and feed their families,” FTC chair Lina Khan wrote in a statement alongside the full complaint. “Unfair repair restrictions can mean farmers face unnecessary delays during tight planting and harvest windows.”

The FTC’s main complaint here centers around a software problem. Deere places limitations on its operational software, meaning certain features and calibrations on its tractors can only be unlocked by mechanics who have the right digital key. Deere only licenses those keys to its authorized dealers, meaning farmers often can’t take their tractors to more convenient third-party mechanics or just fix a problem themselves. The suit would require John Deere to stop the practice of limiting what repair features its customers can use and make them available to those outside official dealerships.

Kyle Wiens is the CEO of the repair advocacy retailer iFixit and an occasional WIRED contributor who first wrote about John Deere’s repair-averse tactics in 2015. In an interview today, he noted how frustrated farmers get when they try to fix something that has gone wrong, only to run into Deere's policy.

“When you have a thing that doesn’t work, if you’re 10 minutes from the store, it’s not a big deal,” Wiens says. “If the store is three hours away, which it is for farmers in most of the country, it’s a huge problem.”

The other difficulty is that US copyright protections prevent anyone but John Deere from making software that counteracts the restrictions the company has put on its platform. Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 makes it so people can’t legally counteract technological measures that fall under its protections. John Deere’s equipment falls under that copyright policy.

“Not only are they being anti-competitive, it's literally illegal to compete with them,” Wiens says.

Deere in the Headlights

Wiens says that even though there has been a decade of pushback against John Deere from farmers and repairability advocates, the customers using the company’s machines have not seen much benefit from all that discourse.

“Things really have not gotten better for farmers,” Wiens says. “Even with all of the noise around a right to repair over the years, nothing has materially changed for farmers on the ground yet.”

This suit against Deere, he thinks, will be different.

“This has to be the thing that does it,” Wiens says. “The FTC is not going to settle until John Deere makes the software available. This is a step in the right direction.”

Deere’s reluctance to make its products more accessible has angered many of its customers, and even garnered generally bipartisan congressional support for reparability in the agricultural space. The FTC alleges John Deere also violated legislation passed by the Colorado state government in 2023 that requires farm equipment sold in the state to make operational software accessible to users.

“Deere’s unlawful business practices have inflated farmers’ repair costs and degraded farmers’ ability to obtain timely repairs,” the suit reads.

Deere & Company did not respond to a request for comment for this story. Instead, the company forwarded its statement about the FTC's lawsuit. The statement reads, in part: “Deere remains fully committed to ensuring that customers have the highest quality equipment, reliable customer service and that they, along with independent repair technicians, have access to tools and resources that can help diagnose, maintain and repair our customers’ machines. Deere’s commitment to these ideals will not waiver even as it fights against the FTC’s meritless claims.”

Elsewhere in the statement, Deere accused the FTC of "brazen partisanship" filed on the "eve of a change in administration" from chair Lina Khan to FTC Commissioner Andrew Ferguson. The company also pointed to an announcement, made yesterday, about an expansion to its repairability program that lets independent technicians reprogram the electronic controllers on Deere equipment.

Nathan Proctor, senior director for the Campaign for the Right to Repair at the advocacy group US PIRG, wrote a statement lauding the FTC’s decision. He thinks this case, no matter how it turns out, will be a positive step for the right to repair movement more broadly.

“I think this discovery process will paint a picture that will make it very clear that their equipment is programmed to monopolize certain repair functions,” Proctor tells WIRED. “And I expect that Deere will either fix the problem or pay the price. I don’t know how long that is going to take. But this is such an important milestone, because once the genie’s out of the bottle, there’s no getting it back in.”