Trump To Veterans: Drop Dead Sooner:
Agency leaders have instructed managers across the Veterans Health Administration, the agency’s health care arm, to identify thousands of openings that can be canceled. Employees warn that the contraction will add pressure to an already stretched system, contributing to longer wait times for care.
The health system grew by tens of thousands of employees under the Biden administration as more veterans enrolled in VA health care after passage of the PACT Act, which expanded benefits for veterans exposed to toxic burn pits. Then-secretary Denis McDonough urged veterans to be seen by VA doctors rather than request referrals to private practitioners outside the system.
But the Trump administration has said it wants more veterans to seek treatment outside the government system. Political appointees at VA and their allies have also said they favor a leaner health care workforce because they think physicians and other health care providers could be more productive, said one former appointee who is close to the Trump team.
Memo To All NCC Council Hacks–Read This:
CHANDLER, Arizona — This Arizona suburb sent a searing warning message to Big Tech companies after city officials on Thursday night unanimously rejected a proposed artificial intelligence data center — capping a fight that attracted powerful interests from Silicon Valley and Washington.
Outside political pressure to approve the project, perhaps most significantly from former Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, shined a spotlight on AI industry efforts to influence local decisions around development.
The Chandler City Council last night voted down a request by a New York developer to rezone land to build a data center and business complex. The local battle escalated in October after Sinema showed up at a planning commission meeting to offer public comment warning officials in her home state that federal authority may soon stomp on local regulations.
“Chandler right now has the opportunity to determine how and when these new, innovative AI data centers will be built,” she told local officials. “When federal preemption comes, we’ll no longer have that privilege.”
On Thursday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order targeting state laws regulating AI models. That order, however, did not try to override regulations tied to the nationwide build-out of huge AI data centers for housing servers and next-generation AI chips. (Besides, the order is almost certainly illegal.)
You can stop this project–or face almost certain political defeat (of course, the cowards who are retiring already feel free to inflict whatever damage they can on our infrastructure and environment w/o worrying about that). Or, and this is a novel idea, how about doing the right thing because it’s the right thing to do?
Oh, one more thought–the County derives its authority from the State. If Delaware can move corporate heaven and earth to curry favor with Elon Musk, it certainly can do the same to stop this project. Gov. Meyer has stated that he opposes the project. Will he do anything to stop it?
Finally, A Legit Challenge To The Trump Ballroom:
Donald Trump is facing a federal lawsuit seeking to halt construction on his $300m White House ballroom, with historic preservationists accusing the president of violating multiple federal laws by tearing down part of the iconic building without required reviews or congressional approval.
The legal challenge, filed on Friday by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the US district court for the District of Columbia, represents the most significant attempt yet to stop Trump’s 90,000-sq-ft addition to the White House complex. The organization is seeking a temporary restraining order to freeze all construction activities until proper federal oversight procedures are completed.
“No president is legally allowed to tear down portions of the White House without any review whatsoever – not President Trump, not President Joe Biden, and not anyone else,” the complaint reads. “And no president is legally allowed to construct a ballroom on public property without giving the public the opportunity to weigh in.”
The lawsuit names Trump and several administration officials as defendants, and it alleges violations of the national capital planning act, the national environmental policy act, and the constitution’s property clause, which reserves oversight of federal property to Congress.
The $300m project is being funded by wealthy people and large corporations with federal government contracts, including Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, Lockheed Martin and Palantir Technologies. The administration released only a partial list of contributors while giving others anonymity.
The president also previously said he is not bound by typical building restrictions. “They said, ‘Sir, this is the White House. You’re the president of the United States, you can do anything you want,’” Trump said at an October dinner celebrating the ballroom’s donors.
Who, pray tell, are ‘they’, eh?
“I cannot in good conscious allow my office to become a political football.” A real quote from Julianne Murray upon resigning as acting US attorney for Delaware. Perhaps, then, it was her subconscious that impelled her to take the position in the first place. A blatantly-partisan R appointed to a position for the express purpose of (a) doing Trump’s bidding, and (b) avoiding the Senate approval process in order to, you know, do Trump’s bidding.
What do you want to talk about?