Trump's Policies Part 4

[Tidewater]

I get Garcia had due process and should be deported. But why is he in prison? Deported illegal immigrants are not just returned to their emigrating country?

That I do not know. I suspect that the US asked El Sal to hold him in prison (and paid for that service). Maybe the point is to "encourage" illegal aliens to self-deport before ICE grabs them and deports them whether it is convenient or not. Better to leave un your own timeframe. (settle debts, close accounts, find somewhere else to go). If you wait until ICE deports you, you may go to CECOT, which looks like no fun.

Welker touched on this a bit. The president of El Sal said he could not send Garcia back to the US. Trump said he has not asked. I think if they wanted to, it could happen in a day.
If it were me, I'd fly him to Brownsville, have a judge and all the witnesses needed on hand, bring him him before the judge, decide his case, put him back on the plane and fly him back to El Sal.

As for the deportation, it could well be that the Immigration Judge amended the withholding order to reflect he cannot be deported to either El Salvador or Guatemala. If so, Trump Administration is in some trouble, but I would like to see the amended order.

 

[Tidewater]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/05/04/trump-nbc-interview-constitution-economy/

Trump says, ‘I don’t know,’ when asked if he’s required to uphold Constitution

One wonders how federal judges would respond to the same question.

 

[selmaborntidefan]

Closed on orders from his HHS Secretary’s dad.

Reopening it is a stupid idea even for Trump. It cost way too much to operate and renovating it to where it would be serviceable as a prison would cost way too much money. It is doing fine as a tourist attraction.

Building another ADX Florence style prison would be more cost efficient.

This guy has had the same convictions since he was six years old, which would’ve been in 1952. I will almost guarantee you that Alcatraz is the only prison he could even name. He has a bizarre fixation on what he thinks he understood as a child and his brain never developed. He’s stuck in white America 1958, before “those people” drove the whiteness of Queens from 96% to 78% (1960) when “they”left Harlem. He probably thinks the Yankees are still winning the World Series every year. And will come out one day proposing we send a man to the moon.

 

[some_al_fan]

Make Alcatraz Great Again (MAGA)

 

[selmaborntidefan]

I enjoyed Twitter last night since the general consensus is that with his movie tariff and Alcatraz obsession he was obviously watching a movie, perhaps “The Rock,” although if he was you gotta figure he’d be asking why “the real Rock” wasn’t in the movie.

Look at his fixations
- the JFK files
- Alcatraz
- the gold at Fort Knox (musta saw Goldfinger)
- the vaccine schedule
- JFK signed the Trade Expansion Act, which gave the president authority to impose, tariffs without congressional interference

The dude is mentally stuck in the culture time frame of 1963-64.

His next proposal is likely to be “we should bring the World’s Fair back to New York!”

 

[Its On A Slab]

And will come out one day proposing we send a man to the moon.

As we all know, it would be FAKE NEWS.

 

[spidermayin]

Official White House account on X: View attachment 50735

So, it's ironic that Trump is holding a red light saber here, which is mostly used by the sith and other dark side users.

 

[selmaborntidefan]

So, it's ironic that Trump is holding a red light saber here, which is mostly used by the sith and other dark side users.

Trust me - he’s never seen even one of the movies.

 

[cdub55]

Disabled American Veterans (DAV) has posted a long statement about the proposal to rename Veterans Day. It is worth a read:

DAV statement on the proposal to rename Veterans Day

www.dav.org

Say less...

 

[cdub55]

He has the mind of a child.

Starting to think the movie Benjamin Button was actually a documentary about Trump...

 

[CrimsonNagus]

What's he waiting for, either do it or move on. Why waffle again?

Because he can't end the ban. TikTok was banned by a federal law passed by congress, signed by Biden and upheld by the SCOTUS. Trump cannot erase that with an EO. Technically the delay was illegal because the law said the ban could only be delayed if a sell was pending, and only for 90 days. No sell was, or is, pending, but our current congress continues to sit on the sideline watching Trump erode their power.

 

[Tidewater]

Here is one I wholeheartedly concur with.
Hegseth directs 20% cuts to top generals and admirals among other reductions across military
Edward Luttwak, The Pentagon and the Art of War showed that in 1945, with 12,800,000 men and women in uniform, the US military had 145 3-star generals and above.
In 1985, with 4.8 million men and women, we had 148 3-star generals and above.
I can tell you from personal experience, more generals does not mean better decisions or better-functioning staffs. It means gumming up the works, slowing staffs down, and getting less done.
If you get a flag officer position, the general needs to justify his position by injecting himself into things that functioned well before he arrived.
He will say, "From now on, before we prosecute that time-sensitive target, I need to approve it."
But, before the general can see it, his colonel needs to approve it to weed out mistakes before they get to the general. Before the colonel can approve it, the major needs to scrub it, etc etc. Adding a flag officer just adds another layer to clear. The staff did not get faster. It got slower.

On the other hand, before the Second World War, Major Eisenhower briefed Congress on military requirements. Today, only 4-stars get to speak before Congress. Of course, the 4-star has to have a 3-star to carry his bags. The 3-star needs to have a 2-star to carry the 3 star's bags. And so on. More flag officers is not better. Its worse. Much worse. Gradually over time, the services have gotten more and more flag officer billets approved.

And, while some flag officers I have known are good dudes, there are a lot that you would not want on your Trivial Pursuit team. I saw an army division commander on a contingency op in which Muslims were significant players ask, "When do Muslims celebrate Christmas?" No, I'm not kidding.

USMC is a corps. The entire force structure is three divisions, The normal corps commander is a 3-star. Right now, there are three USMC 4-star generals (COMUSAFRICOM, Commandant, Assistant Commandant). Three four-stars for a corps. The other services are similarly bloated.

If we need more generals in the event of war, promote some. My favorite Abe Lincoln anecdote was when someone briefed Linciln on the losses in a recent battle: 25 generals and 5,000 horses. Lincoln responded, "That's too bad about the horses. I can always make more generals."

 

[Tidewater]

Also in the works, combining NORTHCOM (military command for ops in the US & Canada) and SOUTHCOM (military command for US ops in Latin America.
Hegseth orders Pentagon to slash top ranks of military
Also, disband AFRICOM and return the AOR to EUCOM. I once asked COMAFRICOM why his headquarters was not in Africa, and he said, "Nobody in Africa will have us." No African country was willing to host USAFRICOM on their territory, which says a lot about how important Sub-saharan Africa is to US policy. Africom? ¡Afuera!

 

[Huckleberry]

Here is one I wholeheartedly concur with.
Hegseth directs 20% cuts to top generals and admirals among other reductions across military
Edward Luttwak, The Pentagon and the Art of War showed that in 1945, with 12,800,000 men and women in uniform, the US military had 145 3-star generals and above.
In 1985, with 4.8 million men and women, we had 148 3-star generals and above.
I can tell you from personal experience, more generals does not mean better decisions or better-functioning staffs. It means gumming up the works, slowing staffs down, and getting less done.
If you get a flag officer position, the general needs to justify his position by injecting himself into things that functioned well before he arrived.
He will say, "From now on, before we prosecute that time-sensitive target, I need to approve it.
But, before the general can see it, his colonel needs to approve it to weed out mistakes before they get to the general. Before the colonel can approve it, the major needs to scrub it, etc etc. Adding a flag officer just adds another layer to clear. The staff did not get faster. It got slower.

On the other hand, before the Second World War, Major Eisenhower briefed Congress on military requirements. Today, only 4-stars get to speak before Congress. Of course, the 4-star has to have a 3-star to carry his bags. The 3-star needs to have a 2-star to carry the 3 star's bags. And so on. More flag officers is not better. Its worse. Much worse. Gradually over time, the services have gotten more and more flag officer billets approved.

And, while some flag officers I have known are good dudes, there are a lot that you would not want on your Trivial Pursuit team. I saw an army division commander on a contingency op in which muslims were significant players ask when Muslims celebrate Christmas. No, I'm not kidding.

USMC is a corps. The entire force structure is three divisions, The normal corps commander is a 3-star. Right now, there are three USMC 4-star generals (COMUSAFRICOM, Commandant, Assistant Commandant). Three four-stars for a corps. The other services are similarly bloated.

If we need more generals in the event of war, promote some..My favorite Abe Lincoln anecdote was when someone briefed Linciln on the losses in a recent battle: 25 generals and 5,000 horses. Lincoln responded, "That's too bad about the horses. I can always make more generals."

I’ll certainly defer to your knowledge in this area, but how do you think they should determine who gets cut? If they decide to cut only those who aren’t diehard Trump loyalists, would you be concerned?

 

[Bamaro]

I’ll certainly defer to your knowledge in this area, but how do you think they should determine who gets cut? If they decide to cut only those who aren’t diehard Trump loyalists, would you be concerned?

Its all part of the overall plan. Get rid of those who dont bend a knee to you and eventually replace them with those who will do your bidding.
Building a deep state for real.

 

[Tidewater]

I’ll certainly defer to your knowledge in this area, but how do you think they should determine who gets cut? If they decide to cut only those who aren’t diehard Trump loyalists, would you be concerned?

That would be dumb. For two reasons. The incumbent might not care for Trump's antics, but every incumbent has a couple of years in the job and then must be replaced. Trump was going to have to replace them anyway and he obviously was going to choose guys he liked. The military is not supposed to be partisan anyway (a policy dating back to the nineteenth century), but most recent transition has been replacing incumbents who concern themselves with diversity with guys who say they are focused on warfighting.

The most important reason is redundancy. For example, we do not need (and frankly have never needed) an Africa Command (Bush, Jr. created it). We do not do that much in Africa. Africans do not want a significant US military presence there. Until 2007, US military ops in Africa were handled by European Command in Stuttgart, Germany. Fold Africa ops again under EUCOM and close AFRICOM down. There is a four-star, a bunch of 3, 2 and 1-stars, colonels, majors, etc. saved right there.
We never had a unified command for ops within the US because of legal restrictions and the US military doesn't operate much inside the US. South of the Rio Grande, we had SOUTHCOM.
Then 911 happened and they created NORTHCOM. The US military does not operate a lot within the lower 48, but when the space shuttle broke up on re-entry, they got called. They also assist with disaster relief when requested by civil authorities, etc.
Get rid of NORTHCOM, fold those ops up under SOUTHCOM, save another four-star, a bunch of 3, 2, and 1 stars, colonels, majors, etc.

Other personnel savings come from slimming down in other units. The Defense Commissary Agency runs a chain of supermarkets and is commanded by a 3-star USAF fighter pilot because the skill set overlap between being a fighter pilot and running a grocery chain is uncanny.

 

[selmaborntidefan]

I just wanted to say I think I've learned more truth about the Garcia situation in this thread from Tidewater and JD than I've heard in the so-called news coverage and definitely from social media.

 

[Bamaro]

Trump administration asks judge to toss suit restricting access to abortion medication

The Trump administration on Monday asked a judge to toss out a lawsuit from three Republican-led states seeking to cut off telehealth access to abortion medication mifepristone. Why this matters: Justice Department attorneys stayed the legal course charted by the Biden administration, though they didn’t directly weigh in on the underlying issue of access to the drug that’s part of the nation’s most common method of abortion. Rather, the government argued the states don’t have the legal right, or standing, to sue. Trump told Time magazine in December he would not restrict access to abortion medication. The case is being considered by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Texas, a Trump nominee who once ruled in favor of halting approval for the drug. The lawsuit from Idaho, Kansas, and Missouri, filed last year, argues that the Food and Drug Administration should roll back access to mifepristone. They want the FDA to prohibit telehealth prescriptions for mifepristone, require three in-office visits and restrict the point in a pregnancy when it can be used.

 

[Tidewater]

There is another thing about DoD that needs to be stated.
Every time an issue comes up (say suicide by enlisted soldiers/sailors/airmen/marines), the Pentagon adds an organization, puts a guy (or gal) in charge of it "to show how important this is," and then the guy in charge starts mandating that units generate reports on their progress. Over time this becomes permanent.
Then a different issue comes up (say, sexual harassment of soldiers/sailors/airmen/marines), and the process repeats, new staff, new officers in charge, new reports.
Continue this process over decades, ever more staffs, ever more OICs, ever more reports.

The Pentagon never and I mean never works in the reverse. No one ever says, "Suicide (or sexual harassment) does not seem to be as big a problem as it was when this organization was created. Shut it down, stop the reports. Everyone go back to what you were doing before." Over time more and more things that are not directly related to putting warheads on foreheads get institutionalized. Closing with and killing the enemies of the republic takes a back seat.
It would be nice if senior leaders said, "stop doing this one. It is no longer that important." Instead, DoD has 5,479 #1 priorities ("Suicide prevention is out #1 priority," "Preventing sexual harassment is our #1 priority."), which means it has no priorities.

 

[Huckleberry]

While I think that’s the right thing to do, Trump’s actions are more likely about executive power than abortion rights. We’ll see if they eventually explore other avenues that would limit access to mifepristone.