James48
James48's JournalYour reminder- it's against the law to send troops to the polls.
I’m hearing rumblings of plans to send troops to take
Polling materials in Election Day. This is your reminder to bookmark
18 U.S. Code § 592 - Troops at polls
U.S. Code
Which states:
“Whoever, being an officer of the Army or Navy, or other person in the civil, military, or naval service of the United States, orders, brings, keeps, or has under his authority or control any troops or armed men at any place where a general or special election is held, unless such force be necessary to repel armed enemies of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both; and be disqualified from holding any office of honor, profit, or trust under the United States.
This section shall not prevent any officer or member of the armed forces of the United States from exercising the right of suffrage in any election district to which he may belong, if otherwise qualified according to the laws of the State in which he offers to vote.”
He can’t do that.
Judge: TSA 'plainly' violated court order with renewed union busting push
Source: GovExec.com
The Homeland Security Department’s planned ouster of the American Federation of Government Employees from the Transportation Security Administration, scheduled to take effect Sunday, must now be halted.
ERICH WAGNER | JANUARY 15, 2026 05:33 PM ET
UNIONS
HOMELAND SECURITY
This story has been updated at 6:30 p.m. ET.
A federal judge in Seattle on Thursday put a halt to the Trump administration’s renewed effort to strip Transportation Security Administration workers of their collective bargaining rights, finding that a gambit to replace a policy document undergirding the initiative with a more detailed one “plainly” violated a 2025 court order.
When TSA was established following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, the agency was granted broad discretion to administer its personnel system. But following years of poor morale and high attrition rates, the agency granted the workforce abridged collective bargaining rights in 2011 and expanded those rights in 2022 and issued a new pay scale akin to the federal government’s General Schedule.
Last March, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem issued a determination seeking to unwind TSA workers’ collective bargaining rights, but U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman found that decision to be retaliatory against the American Federation of Government Employees, particularly due to the “threadbare justification” in Noem’s memo, and issued a preliminary injunction blocking its implementation.
But last month, TSA unveiled that Noem had issued a new determination last September that included new details in its justification for excising unions at the agency, particularly the purported costs of collective bargaining, though those costs amounted to a sliver of the agency’s budget.
In an order Thursday, U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead, a Biden appointee who took over the case last October, scolded the administration for its attempted end-run around the original injunction.
Read more: https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2026/01/judge-tsa-plainly-violated-court-order-renewed-union-busting-push/410739/?oref=ge-home-top-story
They are trying to destroy all federal employee Unions, but employee Unions are fighting back.
Take a break.
Some days I just have to stop scrolling through doom, and set the computer down. Today is one of his days.
It’s ok to stop, and say , enough horrible news today. Take a break. Listen to soothing music. Take a hot shower. Let it go. Just for tonight let it go.
Tomorrow is a different day.
Major Sulfuruc Acid leak in Texas
I don’t know how this one didn’t get covered, but four days ago there was a MAJOR Sulfuric Acid leak of over one million gallons into the Houston ship channel. A pipe broke and it poured into the water. It’s huge.
Houston Texas:
https://www.khou.com/article/news/local/jacintoport-boulevard-chemical-leak-channelview-texas/285-73f3625c-5b1a-406d-9d18-27e32aa262d0
TSA plans to bust labor union despite court order blocking it
Source: GovExec.com
The Transportation Security Administration on Friday announced that it will terminate its union contract and strip its workforce of their collective bargaining rights next month, an apparent violation of a court order against the agency that has been in place since June.
When TSA was established following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, the agency had broad discretion to administer its own personnel system. But following years of poor morale and high attrition rates, the agency granted the workforce abridged collective bargaining rights in 2011 and expanded those rights in 2022, along with a new pay scale akin to the federal government’s General Schedule.
In March, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem issued a determination seeking to unwind TSA workers’ collective bargaining rights, but U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman found that decision to be retaliatory against the American Federation of Government Employees, particularly due to the “threadbare justification” in Noem’s memo, and issued a preliminary injunction blocking the action.
But in a memo to Hydrick Thomas, president of AFGE Council 100, which represents TSA workers, acting TSA Assistant Administrator for Human Capital Thomas Regan wrote that Noem issued a revamped determination again banning unions at TSA, effective Jan. 11, 2026.
Read more: https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2025/12/tsa-plans-bust-labor-union-despite-court-order-blocking-it/410147/?oref=ge-home-top-story
Despite a Judge ruling she can’t do that, she just decided to disregard the Judge and did it again. They HATE employee unions.
Fun Fact!
Did you know that 90 House Republican members are already over the age of 65?
Statistically, what are the odds of at least two or three kicking off before the next election cycle, and flipping the House?
I mean, just because MTG ‘retirement narrows the gap to now being only TWO SEATS away from a tie- and three from flipping over to the other side.
Is it bad to hope Father Time ticks a little faster?
Police officer critically injured in crash during JD Vance motorcade
Source: USA Today
A police officer is in critical condition after a crash of police vehicles involved in a motorcade for Vice President JD Vance in Tennessee, officials said.
The crash happened at about 6:11 p.m. on Nov. 14 in Maryville, Tennessee, about 17 miles from downtown Knoxville, when a Maryville police motorcycle and a Tennessee Highway Patrol SUV collided, the city and Maryville Police Department said.
The critically injured officer, who was riding the motorcycle, was identified as Maryville Police Field Training Officer Justin Brown. Brown was "providing a dignitary protection detail escort" for Vance, the police department said.
After the crash, a group of citizens immediately started rendering aid and "played a critical role in saving the life of the officer," the department said. Brown was taken to the University of Tennessee Medical Center, officials said. One of two ambulances that were part of the motorcade stopped and rendered aid to the officer, Special Agent Jason Pack, a spokesperson for the Tennessee Department of Safety, told USA TODAY in an email. Officer Justin Brown remained in critical condition with "significant injuries" as of the afternoon of Nov. 15 and underwent surgery earlier in the day, the police department said in an update.
Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/11/15/police-officer-critically-injured-jd-vance-motorcade/87293785007/
18 USC 1361.
Every day I add to the list of felonies committed by that man.
By destroying the East Wing, he has now officially (in my book) committed a TEN YEAR FELONY of destroying federal property without permission.
18 U.S.C. § 1361 - U.S. Code - Unannotated Title 18. Crimes and Criminal Procedure § 1361. Government property or contracts
Current as of January 01, 2024
Whoever willfully injures or commits any depredation against any property of the United States, or of any department or agency thereof, or any property which has been or is being manufactured or constructed for the United States, or any department or agency thereof, or attempts to commit any of the foregoing offenses, shall be punished as follows:
If the damage or attempted damage to such property exceeds the sum of $1,000, by a fine under this title or imprisonment for not more than ten years, or both; if the damage or attempted damage to such property does not exceed the sum of $1,000, by a fine under this title or by imprisonment for not more than one year, or both.
Ballroom Bluff
From Facebook just now-
From Andrew Kerr
Here's why the new White House ballroom project is not real. (The demo is obviously real.) Some background - I am a licensed Architect with 20+ years of experience. I have worked on multiple Federal projects with sensitive building programs that required background checks.
1. With a projected size of 90,000sf and a newly revised budget of $300M, the cost per square foot would be $3,333. No building costs anywhere near that. $1,000/sf is astronomical.
2. Let's assume, since we are drawing in the classical, style, that the proportions of the building adhere to the Golden Ratio. A 90,000sf would be a building with a footprint roughly 380' x 235'. Longer than a football field and 1.5x as wide.
2. The building is projected to accommodate 999 people. 15sf/person is required for a banquet area; 20sf/person is pretty comfortable. What you see in the rendering below is closer to 20sf/person. That's only 20,000sf, or a space that is 200'x100'. It's supposed to be a ballroom, so let's be extraordinarily generous and provide 10,000sf for the ballroom support functions, and another 10,000sf for pre-function. Extraordinarily generous. That's STILL only 40,000sf, not even half of the supposed building.
3. There are no drawings for the building. The renderings are poorly coordinated - exterior views do not match the interior views. See below - the White House is 70 feet tall, to the roof. The interior renderings show a room that is roughly 100' x 200', with a ~20 foot ceiling. The exterior renderings show a building footprint of 4.5x that amount.
Those are renderings that could be produced by young staff in a week or two, at most. Nothing else exists.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1CTBZhfbxU/?mibextid=wwXIfr
There are NO PLANS, no details. Nothing.
Trump fires another inspector general, raising fears about oversight independence
Source: GovExec.com
President Donald Trump on Oct. 15 fired the inspector general for the Export-Import Bank of the U.S., according to an official familiar with the situation. This latest action could further weaken the independence of watchdogs that root out waste, fraud and abuse in government agencies.
On Oct. 17, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, a longtime IG defender, posted on X that the White House flouted a statutory requirement to inform Congress about the removal in advance and provide the “substantive rationale.”
“Pres Trump takes an oath to uphold the constitution & the laws but he hasn’t told Congress he was firing the Ex-Im Inspector General The law says POTUS has to specifically inform Congress abt IG firings and unless the courts say otherwise thats still the law,” he wrote.
(Snip)
Likewise, Trump fired 17 IGs on the fifth day of his second term without congressional notice or justification. A federal judge wrote that it was “obvious” the president broke federal law with respect to the removals, but she rejected a request by some of them to be reinstated after determining they could not show they suffered irreparable harm.
Read more: https://www.govexec.com/oversight/2025/10/trump-fires-another-inspector-general-raising-fears-about-oversight-independence/408950/?oref=ge-home-top-story
If you want to know where the felonies are taking place in real time, just watch who he is firing. This is the Import Export Bank IG.
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