kscarbel2

President Trump signed an executive order Friday establishing a White House energy council to promote the nation’s energy industries.

Called the National Energy Dominance Council, the group is headed by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, with Energy Secretary Chris Wright and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin also serving on the council.

It’s tasked with centralizing the nation’s energy policies under the eye of the White House and underscores Trump’s position that American energy production is a pressing national security issue.

“Energy security is also national security. President Trump’s vision for energy dominance is that we’re selling energy to our friends and allies, not having them buy it from our adversaries.”

"President Trump wisely understood that under the Biden Administration, there was a war against American energy, and today that war has officially ended. President Trump on day one declared a national energy emergency, and this is a real emergency because the Biden Administration restricted the production of oil and natural gas."

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum

Did anyone know that USAID was spending $697 million on Afghanistan annually?

AND, in addition to that, sending $40 million to $80 million in cash every 7 to 10 days ???

.

2 hours ago, 67RModel said:

Thats what I mean. It’s like all these contracts or debits are so ridiculous it seems fake. The only way it makes sense is if the politicians that signed off on this garbage are somehow connected to the foreign entities receiving the money. Laundering the taxpayers' money to line their own pockets. It would be nice if they published who or what company is the actual receiver of these monies. 

You read my mind. I was just telling a friend exactly that. It’s clearly suspiciously ridiculous.

USAID........$2.5 million for electric vehicles in Vietnam...........How does that help America ???

.

1 minute ago, 67RModel said:

I know Trump, for the most part, actually does what he says he is going to do. I think sometime in December he mentioned DOGE, but had probably been preemptively planning it for a while in case he won the election. But here it is on a website you can somewhat follow along on. It almost seems fake. Like this stuff I'm reading the department is flagging for elimination is bat$hit bizarre. Like a $25,000 debit for "empowering LGTBQIA+ refugees in Greece". Like who is authorizing this garbage. Its almost like it isn't real. Assuming it is real the transparency is insane. Like this department is literally opening these crooked books for everyone to see. I can't ever recall a time where anything like this has happened before. Maybe that is why it almost seems fake....The level of transparency bluntness is nothing you would ever get from an establishment politician. 

You pegged it. Never before has the government been upfront with the masses in our lifetime.

.

.

The Department of Government Efficiency website.

(Check it daily)

https://doge.gov/

“In fact, our actions… we post our actions to the DOGE Handle on X and to the Doge website. So all of our actions are maximally transparent. In fact, I don’t think there’s been, I don’t know of a case where an organization has been more transparent than the DOGE organization.”

Elon Musk

The State Department of the Trump administration will designate drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and calls for their complete eradication.

The decision was made as Mexico continues to experience unprecedented levels of violence, including the widespread use of landmines and improvised explosive devices, despite empty government claims that crime has decreased and impunity has ended.

Designated cartels include the Sinaloa Cartel, Cartel Jalisco New Generation, The Gulf Cartel, The Cartel Del Noreste faction of Los Zetas (Northeast Cartel), Carteles Unidos, and Familia Michoacana.

The designation includes the Central American gang Mara Salvatrucha and the South American Tren De Aragua.

The New York Times says the list includes the Colombian criminal organization Clan Del Golfo.

In Mexico, the cartels receive protection from the Tamaulipas government, and Mexico’s federal government.

In addition to mass killings, widespread kidnapping, and torture, each of the six cartels has also been linked to the indiscriminate use of explosives and some of them to the use of land mines.

All the organizations have a long history of receiving government protection, and legal protection, with Mexican judges routinely releasing captured cartel figures.

51 minutes ago, Geoff Weeks said:

Yeah, and how long was "project 2025" in the works also? Both sides are play from the same playbook.

No, the Trump administration is not using the same playbook as the Schumer & Schiff Democratic team.

On Thursday, Washington DC Biden-appointed Judge Amir Ali ordered that funds for hundreds of foreign aid contracts be reinstated, saying the decision to suspend funding for 90 days while conducting a thorough review of each contract and its validity has not been justified or rationalized.

Elon Musk immediately hit out at the ruling.

"Lawfare has gotten out of control. They have been planning the lawfare against the Trump administration for 2 years. They have 800 lawyers and 280 civil service organizations. They were pre-interviewing plaintiffs in November of 2024. That is not me saying this. That is the New York Times saying this."

"This constitutional crisis narrative has been planned in advance and is being executed because they have hundreds of lawsuits planned."

Elon Musk

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) increased grants for illegal aliens from 2020 to 2024, spending more than $22 billion in taxpayer dollars on grants that included money going toward vehicles, home loans, and startup businesses.

The agency’s Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), handed out $22.6 billion to a host of nonprofits, which attracted illegal aliens crossing the border.

The amount of non-citizens eligible to obtain funding that derived from ORR under the majority of Biden’s administration soared significantly, with over $10 billion handed out to grant-receiving organizations in just 2023 alone.

Meanwhile, the United States experienced record-setting numbers of illegal border crossings, as the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) apprehending 2.4 million illegal aliens during that time.

Non-government organizations swindled up to $1.7 billion from U.S. taxpayers for services “including dollar-for-dollar matching savings plans for cars, homes, college educations or startups; small-business loans of up to $15,000; loans to repair credit history of up to $1,500; ‘cultural orientation,’ ’emergency housing support,’ legal assistance, and Medicaid care.”

But most of the funding went toward unaccompanied migrant children — committing $12.4 billion over five years — despite whistleblowers sounding the alarm and calling out ORR for handing over many of 300,000 children in its care to unvetted and abusive sponsors.

For an encore, ORR lost track of 32,000 illegal alien children.

1 hour ago, Joey Mack said:

I am mentally prepared for the tariff debate between the U.S. and other nations. I trust the business men in the white house because they are talking to us about the work they are doing. I can understand more of the process. I trust Trump. I know the Dems. Want him to fail more than wanting him to succeed.  Too bad... They too will reap the benefits of the success.. 

But this is about far more that tariffs. That they are targeting countries that place VAT on U.S. goods is huge.

President Trump is taking on one of the world's best known scams.......The EU's "value added tax" which makes US goods absurdly expensive and impossible to sell there.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

President Trump signed an executive order allowing for new worldwide 'reciprocal tariffs' – with plans to target foreign trade practices on a country-by-country basis that will hit within weeks.

"TODAY IS THE BIG ONE: RECIPROCAL TARIFFS!!! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!"

The White House described the massive reach of the tariffs, which will extend far beyond the tariffs that other nations impose on the U.S to encompass 'burdensome regulatory requirements', exchange rates that lead to 'undervalued currencies,' and tax structures that may disadvantage the U.S. 

'It’s patently obvious on its face that they are cheating us,' said a senior White House official.

The 'reciprocal' part of the tariffs taxes imports at the same rate other nations apply to U.S. exports – although the definitions being applied by the White House give Trump plenty of leeway to hike tariffs on a nation if he sees fit. 

The executive order will take into account a series of 'non-tariff barriers' that hurt the U.S.

But the list of factors under consideration provide a sweeping list of reasons to slap on a new tariff.

They include tariffs, 'unfair, discrimination or extraterritorial taxes' including a Value Added Tax, used in Europe, China and elsewhere.

Trump says he won't tolerate the European Union's VAT, which he called 'brutal.' 

Also considered are 'subsidies and burdensome regulatory requirements,' exchange rates which 'deviate from market value' such as 'undervalued currencies' as well as 'any other practice that [U.S. Trade Representatives] determines is an unfair limitation.'

'What we're hoping to do is have this discussion with the nations of the world about how imbalanced the trade environment is because of the existing structures. So the President is more than happy to lower tariffs if countries want to lower tariffs. But let's also recognize that tariffs, higher tariffs, are not the biggest part of the problem in many, if not most, cases,' said the White House official. 

.